■              UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
<<OOOOOSNOOON     N. 

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T  II   E 


CRAIG  IE      HOUSE, 


CAMB  R  IDG  E , 


DURING  ITS  OCCUPANCY  BY  ANDREW  CRAIG1E  AND 

ins  widow. 


SAMUEL  SWETT  GREEN. 


From  Proceedings  <>k  thk  American  Antiquarian  Society,  \t  the 
Semi-Annual  Meeting',  April  25,  1900. 


Wovccjsitrv,  *te$.,  HI.  £.  ^. 

PRESS     OF     CHARLES     HAMILTON, 
311     MAIN     STREET. 

1  'J  On. 


Til  K  GEAIGIE  HOUSE,  CAMBRIDGE, 


DURING    ITS    OCCUPANCY    11Y    AND1IKW    CKAKilK    AM)    HIS    Wlln»\V 


[Full  titles  of  l ks  referred  to  in  the  Notes  will  be  found  in  ;i  list  at  the 

end  of  the  paper!  j 

Samuel  Foster  Haven,  for  so  many  years  our  accom- 
plished librarian,  gave  to  this  Society  several  packages  <■! 
papers  which  are  known  in  our  library  as  the  Craigie 
manuscripts.  They  consist  mainly  of  business  letters  from 
the  correspondents  of  Andrew  Craigie,  the  buyer  and 
occupant  of  the  house  in  Cambridge  which  hears  his  name. 

Mr.  Haven's  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Andrew 
Craigie's  sister,  Mrs.  Bossenger  Foster.  Her  children 
were  heirs  of  Mr.  Craigie  and  the  papers  which  Mr. 
Haven  gave  to  this  Society  naturally  fell  into  the  hands  of 
his  father,  the  late  Judge  Samuel  Haven  of  Dedham, 
and  afterwards  came  into  "his  possession.  It  appeared 
probable  that  an  examination  of  the  Craigie  manuscripts 
might  bring  to  light  some  interesting  facts  in  regard  to  the 
famous  house  owned  by  Mr.  Craigie.  I  have  gone  through 
them  to  see  what  could  be  found. 

While  it  has  been  plea-ant  to  look  over  the  letters  and 
accounts,  very  little  material  has  been  secured  on  the 
subject  in  which  I  had  an  especial  present  interest.  I  shall 
give  in  this  paper  most  of  the  items  found,  and  add 
anecdotes  gleaned  from  the  literary  productions  of  well- 
known  authors  who  have  written  about  the  Craigie  House, 
confining  myself,  however,  mainly  to  such  remark-  as 
relate  to  the  history  of  the  house  while  occupied  by  Mr. 
( Jraiffie  and  his  family. 


When  Andrew  Craigie  bought  the  estate  on  which  the 
Craigie  House  stands,  it  comprised  between  one  and  two 
hundred  acres,  probably  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
acres,1  and  included  the  celebrated  Batchelder  House2  on 
Brattle  Street,  nearly  opposite  Mason  Street.  The  latter 
house  was  the  first  residence  in  Cambridge  of  the  elder 
Colonel  John  Vassall,  the  first  of  the  family  of  that  name 
to  live  in  Cambridge. 

He  bought  the  house  from  Merc}',  widow  of  John  Friz- 
zle, Jr.,  July  26,  1736.3  Our  late  associate,  Mr.  George 
Dexter,  and  others,  have  thought  that  Mr.  Vassall  built 
the  house.4  That  is  a  mistake.  There  is  no  evidence,  even, 
that  it  was  built  by  the  Frizzles.  It  appears  that  they  left 
the  old  house  standing,  but  much  enlarged,  altered  and 
modernized  it.  In  fact,  this  house  seems  to  be  one  of  the 
most  ancient,  if  not  the  oldest  house  existing  in  Cam- 
bridge.5 

Colonel  Vassall  sold  the  Batchelder  house  in  1741  to  his 
younger  brother,  Major  Henry  Vassall.6  The  latter  died 
there  in  1709,  but  his  widow  continued  to  occupy  the 
house  until  the  Revolution.  The  house  had  an  interesting 
history  during  the  Revolution.  It  was  not  confiscated,7 
however,  and  after  passing  through  other  hands  came  into 
the  possession  of  Andrew  Craigie  in  17i>2.8 

The  house  now  becomes  of  especial  interest  to  us,  for 
soon  after  its  purchase  by  Mr.  Craigie,  the  grandfather  of 
Mr.  Samuel  F.  Haven,  Mr.  Bossenger  Foster,  moved  from 
Boston  and  lived  there  with  his  family.9 

Mr.  Foster  was  a  merchant  in  Boston,  a  patriot  during 
our  war  for  independence,  and,  it  will  be  remembered,  a 
brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Craigie.10     After  the  latter's  death, 


1  S.  Longfellow  in  Life  of  H.  W.   Longfellow,    v.   1.,    p.   259;    Curtis   in   Homes, 
p.  177;  Drake,  p.  291. 

2  Mrs.  Isabella  James  in  "  Cambridge  of  1776,"  p.  101. 

3  Isabella  James,  p.  97. 

4  Harvard  Book,  v.  2,  p.  427;  I.  James,  p.  98. 

»  I.  James,  p.  93.       ,;  Il»,/.,  p.  99.       » Ibid.,  p.  100.      8  Ibid.,  p.  101.       8  Ibid. 
10  N.  Paine,  "  Sketch,"  p.  39. 


5 

in  1819  or  1821,  "on  the  division  of  his  estate  that  was 
not  subject  to  dower  lot  No.  L,  the  seven  acres  of  Major 
Henry  Vassal  I,  and  his  house,  fell  to  Elizabeth  Foster," 
Mr.  Haven's  mother,  "  then  the  wife,"  as  intimated  before, 
"of  Judge  Samuel  Haven1  of  whom"  Samuel  Batch- 
elder  " purchased  it  in  1841. "8 

The  first  Colonel  John  Vassall,  several  years  alter  he 
sold  the  Batchelder  house  and  grounds  to  his  brother, 
bought  the  land  on  which  the  Craigie  House  stands,3  and 
his  son,  the  second  Colonel  John  Vassall,  built  the  house. 
"A  strong  belief  prevails  in  Cambridge,"  writes  Mrs. 
Isabella  James,  "  that  a  subterranean  passage  connects"  the 
Batchelder  House  with  the  Craigie  House,4  "and  that  it 
was  constructed  to  enable  the  two  Vassall  families  to  visit 
each  other  without  exposure  to  the  outside  world."  Mrs. 
James,  after  having  made  a  progress,  with  other  explorers, 
through  the  cellars  of  the  two  houses  in  search  of  enlight- 
enment, discredits  the  belief. 

All  visitors  to  Cambridge  are  familiar  with  the  Craigie 
House.  Painted  in  yellow  and  white,  and  built  in  the 
style  of  an  English  country  house  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  it  stands  in  quiet  dignity  and  respectability  far 
back  from  Brattle  Street,  on  the  right  as  one  goes  from 
Harvard  Square  to  Mount  Auburn.  This  house  has,  per- 
haps, more  historic  interest  than  any  other  house  in  New 
England  ;  and  with  the  exception  of  Mount  Vernon  is  very 
likely  the  best  known  residence  in  our  country. 

The  poet  Longfellow,  who  lived  there  so  many  years  in 
recent  times,  playfully  claims  great  antiquity  for  the 
house.  In  writing  to  his  friend  George  W.  Greene,  he 
says:  "  If  you  have  forgotten  it,  you  will  be  pleased  to  be 
reminded  that  Horace  mentions  the  Craigie  House  in  Ode 
XXI.  of  the  First  Book.  He  speaks  of  it  as  the  Yiridis 
(Vagi  in  which  Diana,  takes  delight, — that  is,  on   which  the 


1  Married  May  6,  1799. 

4 1.  James,  p.  101.  a  Ibid.,  p.  98,  » Jbid.,  p.  100, 


6 

moonlight  lingers."  '  The  common  opinion,  however,  is 
that  the  mansion  was  erected  in  17.">!i  by,  as  stated  before, 
the  second  Colonel  John  Vassall.  George  William  Curtis 
supposes  it  to  have  been  built  earlier  and  by  the  first 
hearer  of  that  name  and  title.  He  writes  :  "This  Colonel 
John  Vassal]."  meaning  the  one  who  died  in  1747.  "is 
supposed  to  have  built  the  house  towards  the  close  of  the 
first  half  of  the  last  centuiw.  Upon  an  iron  in  the  hack  of 
one  of  the  chimneys,  there  is  the  date  17">H — which 
probably  commemorates  no  more  than  the  fact  of  its  own 
insertion  at  that  period,  inasmuch  as  the  builder  of  the 
house  would  hardly  commit  the  authentic  witness  of  its 
erection  to  the  mercies  of  smoke  and  soot.  History 
capitulates  before  the  exact  date  of  the  building  of  the 
Craigie  House  as  completely  as  before  that  of  the  founda- 
tion of  Thebes.  But  the  house  was  evidently  generously 
built."2 

Drake's  mind,  or  that  of  his  editor,  seems  to  have  been 
in  a  state  of  confusion.  He  writes:  "The  house  was 
probably  erected  in  17.">H  by  Colonel  John  Vassall,  the 
same  at  whose  tomb  we  have  paid  a  passing  visit."3  The 
torn))  referred  to,  as  evidently  appears  from  the  connection, 
is  that  of  the  first  Colonel  Vassall,  who  died  in  1747,  and 
consequently  could  not  have  built  a  house  in  1759.  Drake 
mixes  up  the  two  colonels  in  other  ways  in  the  paragraphs 
in  which  he  speaks  of  the  Vassalls. 

Reverend  Samuel  Longfellow  is  right  when  he  says  that 
"the  accepted  date  is  1759," 4  and  Mr.  George  Dexter  is 
probably  correct  when  he  states  that  the  house  was  bin  It 
by  the  John  Vassall  who  graduated  from  Harvard  College 
in  17f>7.5  In  corroboration  of  the  statements  of  Long- 
fellow and  Dexter,  our  late  associate,  Mr.  Justin  Winsor, 


1  S.  Longfellow's  Final  Memorials  of  It.  W.  Longfellow,  p.  193. 
-  Curtis,  pp.  273,  274. 

Drake,  \>.  292. 
4  s.  Longfellow's  Life  of  11.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  l..  \<.  259. 
3  Harvard  Hook.  vol.  2,  p.  427. 


writes:    "It   is   thought    thai    the    house    was    erected   by 

Colonel  John  Vassal)  in  1759."  J 

The  Vassalls  were  an  important  family  in  Old  England 
early  connected  with  the  settlement  of  New  England.  In 
(he  early  pail  ot"  the  eighteenth  century  a  John  Vassal! 
had  emigrated  to  the  West  Indies,  where  the  family  owned 
large  estates  from  which  they  derived  great  wealth.  The 
social  position  of  the  family,  which  can  be  easily  shown 
in  other  ways,  was  indicated  by  the  positions  of  the  names 
of  the  three  .sons  of  Leonard  Vassal! — Lewis,  John  and 
William — who  graduated  respectively  in  172S,  L732  and 
17.">;>,  in  the  Triennial  Catalogue  of  Harvard  College.2 
The  Vassalls  also  owned  several  fine  estates  in  Boston  and 
its  vicinity.  Members  of  the  family  resided  in  Cambridge 
less  than  forty  years,  hut  the  impression  they  made  upon 
the  age  yet  survives. 3 

The  Vassall  (or  Craigie)  House  was  in  Tory  row.  The 
proprietors  of  the  estates  on  which  these  houses  stood 
"were  aristocratic  in  their  hnbit  and  manner  of  living  and 
were  nearly  all  Churchmen.  *  *  *  Most  of  them  were 
forced  to  leave  the  country  when  the  Revolution  ap- 
proached. John  Vassall  was  among  the  most  prominent 
and  hitter  of  the  dwellers  in  Tory  row  against  the  Whigs." 
"He  is  said  to  have  carried  his  loyalty  to  the  King  so  far 
as  to  refuse  to  use  the  family  motto:  '  Sffipe  pro  rege, 
semper  pro  republica.'  "4 

Curtis  says  that  after  Wassail  withdrew  from  Cambridge 
and  from  his  country,  the  estate  was  purchased  by  the 
provincial  government.5  This  was  not  the  ease.  It  was 
taken  possession  of  by  the  government,  however,  and  at  a 
later  period  confiscated. 

Drake  learns  "  from  the  records  of  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress    *  that  Joseph  Smith  was  the  custodian   of  the 


1  Winsor'a  Mem.  Hist,  of  Huston,  v.  ;s,  p.  113. 

■'  Harv.  Book,  v.  2,  p.  4-_'T.  '  Harvard  Book,  \  .  2,  p.  428. 

3 1.  James,  pp.  9s,  yy.  •'■  Curtis,  In  HomeB,  p.  274, 


8 

Vassal)  farm,  which  furnished  considerable  supplies  of 
forage  for  our  army."  * 

"The  mansion  house,"  writes  Mr.  Dexter,  "  was  occupied 
by  Colonel  John  Glover's  Marblehead  regiment,  when 
Cambridge  became  a  cam}).  The  house  was  assigned  to 
the  use  of  the  Committee  of  Safety  in  the  Spring  of  177"), 
and  on  the  26th  of  May  it  was  ordered  to  be  cleared  of  the 
'  souldiers  now  lodged  there.'  There  is  no  evidence,  how- 
ever,  that  the  committee  ever  occupied  the  house.  It  was 
certainly  not  thoroughly  cleansed,  for  Washington  himself 
paid  in  duly  for  cleaning  it.3  *  *  *  After  a  short  stay 
in  the  President's  (also  called  the  Wads  worth)  house,  the 
Vassall  house  was  prepared  for  him.  It  remained  the 
headquarters  of  the  army  for  eight  or  nine  months. 

"Mrs.  Washington  came  to  Cambridge  in  December, 
and  many  other  ladies  of  the  families  of  the  Continental 
officers  joined  the   camp."3 

"  If  tradition  is  trustworthy,"  writes  Samuel  Longfellow, 
the  drawing-room  "remembers  the  gayety  of  a  Twelfth- 
night  partv  given  by"  Mrs.  Washington.4  Miss  Alice 
M.  Longfellow  is  quoted  as  saving  that  Washington,  while 
occupying  the  Craigie  House,  very  seldom  "allowed  any 
merriment  at  headquarters,  or  took  any  part  in  revelry 
himself.  *  *  *  *  *  Mrs.  Washington,"  she  adds, 
"came  to  visit  her  husband  during  his  residence  in"  Cam- 
bridge. "She  arrived  in  great  ceremony  with  a  coach  and 
four  black  horses,  with  postillions  and  servants  in  scarlet 
livery.  During  her  visit  she  and  her  husband  celebrated 
their  wedding  anniversary,  though  the  general  had  to  be 
much  persuaded  by  his 'aides.  "5 

The  southeastern  room,  afterwards  Longfellow's  study, 
was  used  as  an  office  by  Washington,  and  "according  to 
the  testimony  of  one  of"  Washington's  "aides,  as  the  dining- 


1  Drake,  i>.  294. 

-  Harvard  Book,  v.  2,  p.  42*.  s  //,;,/.,  p.  429. 

4  s.  Longfellow's  Life  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  l,  p.  2t;o. 

5  The  Cambridge  Tribune,  April  21, 190U,  p.  4,  "  The  Craigie  House," 


room."1  The  northeastern  room  was  occupied  by  the 
General's  "family"  or  aides.  The  chamber  over  the  office 
was  "Washington's  private  room. 

•  Yes,  within  this  very  room. 
Sat  he  in  those  hours  of  gloom, 
Weary  hoth  in  heart  and  head,' — 

wrote  the  poet  when  he  had  made  thai  chamber  his  (first) 
study.  Vet,  serious  as  were  those  days  and  often  wean 
with  the  weight  of  cares,  we  are  glad  to  know  that  they 
were  not  without  their  enlivenment.  Among  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  house  are  two  stories  of  '  Washington's 
laughter.'  "2 

General  Washington  left  Cambridge  in  April,  1776. 3 

" We  have  not  been  able,"  writes  Mr.  Dexter,  "to  dis- 
cover what  use,  if  any,  was  made  of  the  mansion  during 
the  years  immediately  after  his  departure."4 

Several  years  after  Washington  removed  from  the 
Vassall  house  it  was  confiscated.  It  "  was  sold  by  the 
Commonwealth  for  £42(>4  and  passed  into  the  possession 
of  Nathaniel  Tracy  of  Newburyport,  28th  June,  1781."  5 
In  that  seaport  he  and  his  brother  "had  carried  on,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Tracy,  Jackson  and  Tracy,  an  immense 
business  in  privateering.  Martin  Brimmer  was  their  agenl 
in  Boston."6  "The  first  privateer  fitted  out  in  the  United 
States,"  it  is  stated,  "  sailed  from"  Newburyport,  " and  was 
owned  by  Nathaniel  Tracy,  Esq."7 

The  numerous  armed  vessels  owned  wholly  or  principally 
by  Mr.  Tracy  took  vessels  which  "with  their  cargoes," 
writes  Mrs.  K.  Yale  Smith,  in  her  History  of  Newbury- 
port, "sold  for  three  million,  nine  hundred  uml  fifty 
thousand  specie  dollars  (one  hundred  and  sixty-seven 
thousand  two   hundred   and    nineteen    dollars,    Mr.   Tracy 


1  S.  Lonu-fellcnv's  Life  of  II.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  p.  260. 
-  [bid.,  iiji.  260,  -'til. 

3  Harvard  Book,  v.  2,  p.  4.".i.  '//-,«/.  'Ibid. 

'  Drake,  p.  308. 

'  E.  Vale  .Smith,  Hist.,  p.  106. 


10 

devoted  to  the  array  and  other  public  demands)  ;  and  with 
these  prizes  were  taken  2,225  men  prisoners  of  war."1 

Mr.  Tracy  enlarged  the  Vassall  estate,  "notably  by  the 
purchase  of  Henry  Vassall's,  on  the  opposite  side  of "  the 
Watertown  road,  that  is  to  say  on  Brattle  street.  "  He  is 
said  to  have  built  a  summer-house  on  the  summit  of  the 
hill  where  the  observatory  now  stands."2 

Of  Mr.  Tracy's  "  wealtk  and  luxury  there  are  fabulous 
tales."3 

"The  Marquis  of  Chastellux  visited  Newburvport  in 
1782,"  before  Mr.  Tracy  occupied  the  Vassall  house,  and 
with  his  party  "was  entertained  by"  him.  He  lived  there 
"in  great  stvle.  "4 

"  Mr.  Tracy  also  exercised  large  hospitality  in  his  house 
at  Cambridge."5 

"He  carried  himself "  there,  says  Mr.  Curtis,  "with  a 
rare  lavishness."  6 

In  1789  we  find  him  again  an  entertainer  in  Newburv- 
port. There  "he  received  Washington,  then  on  his 
triumphal  tour :  and  in  1824  Lafayette,  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  illustrious  commander,  slept  in  the  same 
apartment  he  had  occupied."7 

"In  17<sii,  the"  Vassall  "estate  was  sold  to  Thomas 
Russell,  a  rich  merchant  of  Boston,  afterwards  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States  Branch  Bank.  He  resided 
in  Boston  and,  we  presume,  used  the  Vassall  house  as  a 
summer  seat."8 

This  merchant  prince  was  "accredited  by  the  vulgar  with 
having  once  eaten  for  his  breakfast  a  sandwich  made  of  a 
hundred  dollar  note  and  two  slices  of  bread."9 


1  E.  Vale  Smith,  Hist.,  p.  107. 

2  Harvard  Book,  v.  '2,  p.  430. 

•  S.  Longfellow's  Life  of  H.  W.  L..  v.  1.  pp.  260,  -'til. 

*  Harvard  Book,  v.  2,  p.  430.  ■■  Ibid. 
6  Curtis,  in  Homes,  p.  -_'70. 

'  Drake,  p.  309. 

8  Harvard  Book,  v.  2,  p.  430. 

» Drake,  p.  309. 


1 1 

Thomas  Russell,  writes  Mr.  George  Dexter,  sold  the 
Vassal!  house,  "1st  January,  1792,  to  A.ndrew  Craigie, 
from  whom  the  mansion  gets  the  title,  Craigie  House,  by 
which  it  lias  since  been  known.  For  the  whole 

estate,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  Including  the 
Henry  Vassal]  house,  he  is  said  to  have  paid  !".">, 7<><i  lawful 
money."  ' 

Our  late  associate,  Dr.  Lucius  R.  Paige,  gives  the  same 
date  for  the  transfer  of  the  house.2 

Drake  states  that  the  sale  of  the  estate  occurred  in 
March,  17913. 

Justin  Winsor  writes  that  the  house  became  the  property 
Of   Dr.  Andrew  Craigie  in  1791. 4 

Samuel  Longfellow,  in  the  life  of  his  brother,  the  poet, 
says  that  Mr.  Craigie  purchased  the  house  and  grounds  on 
the  first  of  January,  1793. 5 

A  few  extracts  from  the  Craigie  papers  will  throw  some 
light  upon  the  date. 

Under  date  of  June  30,   L791,  Bossenger  Foster   writes 

from  Boston  to  Andrew  Craigie  in  New  York  : — 

"My  Dr.  Bror.,  *  *  *  Mr.  Lowell  has  not  yet  recd  an 
answer  from  Mr.  Lane  respecting  the  Vassal)  house.  I  told  him 
a  day  or  two  since  the  £500  stlg  was  ready  for  him." 

duly  17,  171)1,  Mr.  Foster  writes  to  Mr.  Craigie  : — 

"  *     *     *     Mr.  Lowell  yesterday  shew  me  a  Ltr   from    Mr. 

Lane;   he  says,  'have  applied  repeatedly  to   Mr.  respecting 

the  Yassall  house,  but  to  no  purpose.  So  there  remains  do 
impediment  to  that  part  of  Mr.  C's  purchase — So  I  shall  say 
nothing  further  to  Mr.  ('oilman  on  the  subject,  nor  to  Mr. 
Lowell — have  paid  him  the  £500  stlg.,  but  was  obliged  to  go 
to  koxbury  to  do  it,  having  ottered  it  to  him  again  and  again  in 
Boston — to  no  purpose." 

October  1-S,  in  a  letter  written  from  Boston  to  Mr. 
Craigie,  apparently  by  Mr.  Foster: — 

"Have  begun  to  wash  and  paint — hope  tomorrow  to  he  able  to 

1  Harvard  Book,  \.  2,  pp.  430,  431. 

-  Paige,  Hist.,  p.  183.     Note. 

1  Drake,  p.  .nil. 

*  Memorial  Hist,  of  Boston,  vol.  n,  p.  113. 

5  S,  Lonn'felluw's  Lite  of  H.  W.  L.,  V.  1.,  ]>i>.  261,  J0-J. 


12 

be  there,  &  that  what   may  be   done  will    please  you  on  your 
return." 

Oct.  24,  Mr.  Craigie  writes  to  Mr.  Foster  from  Phila- 
delphia : — 

"My  Dear  Brother,  *  *  *  I  shall  be  pleased  on  my 
return  to  find  the  House  at  Cambridge  painted  &c." 

November  30,  Mr.  Foster  writes  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

u*  *  *  Sarah  Gooch  at  Cambridge — the  house  sweetening 
inside." 

It  will  appear  later  that  things  needed  in  housekeeping 
were  stored  at  the  house  in  Cambridge  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  year  1791.  Indeed,  we  find  in  a  letter  of  Aaron 
Dexter,  Boston,  to  Andrew  Craigie,  dated  May  4,  J 791, 
the  following  passage  : — 

"  *  *  *  I  was  last  week  at  Cambridge.  Your  Paradise 
looks  delightfully." 

It  would  appear  from  the  passages  quoted  from  the 
Craigie  manuscripts  that  July  17,  1791,  it  was  practically 
settled  that  Mr.  Craigie  was  to  have  the  Vassall  house,  and 
that  arrangements  were  so  far  completed  that  his  brother- 
in-law,  in  the  later  months  of  the  year  made  preparations 
for  the  occupancy  of  the  house  by  the  new  owner.  It 
would  appear  also  that  Mr.  Craigie  had  had  his  eye  upon 
the  house  at  an  earlier  date  than  June  30.  Perhaps  he  had 
it  in  mind  to  buy  the  estate  as  early  as  May  4,  1791,  or 
at  an  earlier  date.  The  date  of  purchase  given  by  Drake 
seems  to  be  too  early  ;  that  of  Mr.  Longfellow  too  late. 
Very  likely  the  date  given  by  Paige  and  Dexter  is  correct, 
namely,  January  1,  1792,  although  the  possession  of  the 
house  was  evidently  practically  assured  to  Mr.  Craigie 
soon  alter  the  middle  of   1791. 

At  that  time,  too,  Mr.  Craigie  visited  Boston.  June  28, 
1791,  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Foster  from  New  York  : — 

k'  *  *  *  I  am  really  very  anxious  to  return,  and  shall 
certain!}'  be  on  my  way  home  by  the  middle  of  July." 


13 

.Inly  21.  Messrs.  Horace  and  Seth  Johnson,  \<-w  York 
agents  for  Mr.  Craigie,  write  to  Mr.  Foster: — 

••  Mr.  Craigie  will  leave  Town  tomorrow  for  Boston  either  l»y 
land  or  by  way  of  Providence." 

They  write  again,  .Inly  24,  to  Mr.  Foster: — 

"  *     *  Mr.  Craigie  left   town  yesterday   lor  Boston  by 

way  of  Providence." 

Mr.  Craigie  had  been  urged  to  come  to  Boston  owing  to 

the  serious  illness  of  "  Mania"  Craigie.  Very  likely,  also, 
he  was  glad  to  Ite  there  at  the  time  when  the  negotiations 
were  closing  for  the  purchase  of  the  Vassall  estate. 

Early  in  WJ2  he  shows  eagerness  to  be  in  Cambridge. 

January  16,  he  writes  to  Mr.  Poster  from   Philadelphia: 

"  *  *  *  I  am  determined  in  future  to  employ  agents  and 
not  make  the  sacrifice  I  must  do  by  being  absent  from  my  friends 
aud  from  Cambridge." 

January  2!>,  Mr.  Foster  writes  : — 

"  *  *  *  we  are  all  pretty  well  &  hope  to  see  you  by  the 
middle  of  Feby — we  have  had  the  severest  winter  I  ever  knew; 
the  frost  has  ravaged  our  Cellars  both  here  and  at  Cambridge, 
notwithstanding  keeping  a  tire  in  both." 

Mr.  Foster  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

k'  *  *  *  Expect  you  daily  *  *  hope  *  *  that 
nothing  will  hinder  your  being  in  Cambridge  before  this  lias  time 
to  reach  you." 

It  has  been    generally   stated    that    Andrew    Craigie    was 

Apothecary-txeneral   of    the   Continental    Army.      lie   was 

certainly  A.pothecary-General  of  the  Northern    Department 

of  the  Revolutionary  Army,  September  5,  1777,  when  the 

Council   of    Massachusetts    granted    him    supplies    tor  the 

General  Hospital.1     lie  was  at  the   Battle  of  Bunker  Hill, 

"and  assisted  in  the  care  of  the  wounded  there.  He  was  al 
Cambridge  during  the  siege  of  Boston  *  *  *  lb'  was  with 
the  Northern  Army,  under  General  Gates,  in  1777  and  177s.  and 
was  the  confidant  of  Wilkinson,  Gates's  adjutant-general,  in  his 
correspondence  with  Lord  Sterling,  growing  out  of  the  Conway 
imbroglio."  2 


i  Paige,  p.  is;;.    Note. 
2  Drake,  p.  310. 


1 1 

In  his  service  in  the  army  Mr.  Craigie  is  said  to  have 
acquired  a  large  fortune  Josiah  Quincy,  son  of  President 
Quincy,  says  that  "he  had  made  a  large  fortune  by  buying 
up  government  promises,  and  by  other  speculations  during 

the  Revolution."  1 

There  is  a  long  and  continuous  series  of  letters  in  the 
Craigie  papers  which  show  that  Mr.  Craigie  dealt  con- 
stantly in  government  securities  about  the  time  he  went  to 
Cambridge  to  live  and  after  he  had  removed  to  that  place. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Ohio  Company  and,  as  will  appear 
later,  was  largely  engaged  in  speculations  in  lands  at  Lech- 
mere  Point,  now  East  Cambridge.  lie  was  also  a  director 
and  large  proprietor  in  the  company  which  built  (anal 
( usually  known  as  Craigie's  or  Craigie)  bridge,  between 
Boston  and  East  Cambridge. 

Mr.  Craigie  is  said  to  have  made  important  additions  to 
the  Vas.sall  hou.se.  "  It  is  believed,"  writes  Mr.  Samuel 
Longfellow,  that  he  "built  the  western  wing  of  the  house, 
with  its  kitchen  and  dependences  ;  and  being  a  giver  of 
dinners,  enlarged  the  square  northeastern  room  to  its 
present  spacious  dimensions,  and  adorned  it  with  columns, 
to  serve  as  a  grand  dining-room.'"2 

''Cambridge  was  celebrated  for  her  gardens  and  the  orna- 
mental culture  of  her  grounds  even  before  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century.  Andrew  Craigie  *  *  *  laid  out  the  grounds 
around  his  house  in  the  taste  of"  the  "period.  On  the  western 
side  of"  the  "  mansion,  the  tall  hedges  and  clumps  of  lilacs  are  all 
that  remain  of  this  early  garden.  Mr.  Craigie  had  a  greenhouse 
on  the  grounds,  where  the  dormitory  of  the  P^piscopal  Seminary 
now  stands.     This  structure  was  burned  about  1840." 3 

Mr.  Craigie  relied  on  his  Philadelphia  correspondents  to 
procure  a  gardener  for  him.  Nalbro'  and  Jn°  Frazier 
write  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Xew  York,  June  14,  '92  :  "Have 
not  yet  seen  the  Gardner." 

Aug.  28  they  write  to  Mr.  Craigie,  Boston  :  "  The 


1  Figures  of  the  Cast,  p.  '-'5. 

-  Life  of  II.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  p.  262. 

'■'  Winsor's  Memorial  Hist.,  v.  4,  p.  62". 


15 

Gardner  has  not  yet   called  to   execute  the  agreement,  as 

soon  as  lie  does  we  will  inform  von.** 

Sept.  27,  the  correspondents  write: — 

"  We  have  omitted  mentioning  to  you  that  the  Gardner  will 
probably  be  with  yon  in  about  8   <>r    1°   days    from    this  time, 

enclosed  we  send  the  agreement  made  with  him  by  us  on  your 
behalf.  We  could  not  get  him  to  come  on  earlier,  and  he  will 
now  be  in  time  to  make  the  arrangements  which  may  lie  necessary 
for  the  ensuing  Spring." 

Late  in  179]  there  is  a  letter  regarding  an  ice-house. 
Bossenger  Foster  writes  \h>c.  1*  to  Andrew  Craigie,  New 
York  :— 

,k  *  *  *  i  shall  not  make  a  new  Ice  house,  hut  as  soon  as 
can  get  the  hoards  up  to  Cam:  shall  repair  the  old  one,  which  is 
in  fact  build8  a  new  house  on  the  old  Cellar — it  will  hold  a  good 
many  Tons,  and  if  proves  right  will  be  all  sufficient  for  this 
year — believe  I  have  wrote  you  of  my  recv-  everything  you 
have  sent  from  Phila." 

Mr.  Craigie,  says  the  late  Marshall  1\  Wilder, 
quoting  another  writer,  "had  an  ice-house,  an  almost 
unknown  luxury  in  those  days. 

Some  people  thought  a  judgment  would  befall  one  who  would 
thus  attempt  to  thwart  the  designs  of  Providence  by  raising 
flowers  under  glass  in  winter,  and  keeping  ice  under  ground  to 
cool  the  heat  of  summer;  which  now  seem  to  have  been  the 
forerunners  of  two  great  institutions  in  Cambridge — ice  in  sum- 
mer and  flowers  in  winter."  "■ 

Mr.  Craigie  wished  his  correspondents  in  Philadelphia, 
the  Messrs.  Frazier,  to  get  him  a  plan  for  a  malthouse. 
This  reminds  us  that  Harvard  College  had  a  Brewhouse. 
Mr.  Samuel  A.  Fliot  gives  in  an  "  Explanation  of  Plan  of 
the  College  Enclosure  "  : — 

"  6,  is  what  was  called  the  Brew  House  in  the  early  part  of  the 
last  century.  It  was  afterwards  included  in  the  College  Wood 
Yard."2 

Our  late  associate,  Thomas  C.  Aniorv.  writes: — 

"Behind  Harvard  and  Stoughton" — old  Stoughton — "  iv:i>  the 
brewery;  beer  in  those  benighted  days,  when  tea  anil  coffee  were 
not  known,  certainly  at  Cambridge,  being  regarded  as  a  whole- 
some beverage."  3 


1  Winsor's  Memorial  Hist.,  v.  4,  pp.  627,  628. 

2  Sketch  of  the  Hist,  of  Harvard  College,  p.  190,     •  old  Cambridge  and  New,  p.  15 


16 

Mr.  Craigie  had  bought  a  house;  he  must  furnish  it. 
Much  correspondence  took  place. 

July  2<)/i)l,  Nalbro'  Frazier  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie, 
Boston  : — 

"  *  *  *  Inclos'd  you  will  find  a  Bill  of  the  China,  the 
amount  of  which  my  Brother  will  thank  you  to  send  on  as  soon 
as  convenient,  it  will  be  ship'd  on  board  the  Brig'  Maria,  Capt. 
Hopkins,  who  will  leave  this  on  Thursday  next,  28th  instant." 

Aug.  2<s/i)l,  Seth  Johnson  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie, 
Boston  : 

"  You  may  expect  your  Sofa  &c.  by  the  first  vessel." 
Sept.  3/91,  X.  &  J.  Frazier  to  Andrew  Craigie  : — 

"  Inclosed  you  will  find  Bill  of  lading  for  2  doz.  arm  Cane 
Back  Chairs,  which  we  hope  are  finished  in  that  way  as  will  be 
approved  by  you.  Our  J.  Frazier  has  received  the  amount  of 
the  China  sold  you,  for  which  he  Returns  you  his  Thanks.  The 
Bill  of  the  Chairs  you  have  inclosed.  They  came  a  little  higher 
than  was  mentioned  to  you  when  here,  owing  to  the  manner  of 
their  being  finished.  We  presume  the  trifling  amount  over  what 
you  expected  they  would  come  to,  you  will  not  object  to — We 
shall  pay  this  Bill  which,  with  some  other  little  Things  that  Ave 
have  paid  for  your  account,  we  shall  call  upon  Doct.  Caldwell 
for,  agreeably  to  your  Directions  given  us,  the  particulars  of 
which  we  shall  furnish  you." 

Plate  was  needed  in  a  "princely  establishment." 
Oct.  18/!  II  :— 

«c  *     *     *     jjave  purchased  the  plate  of  Mr.   Cabot  Lawful 

for  Sterling — the  looking  glasses  have  bot  also.     They  are  safe 

at  Cambridge."* 

*  tk  Weight  of  Plate  bout  for  And.  Craigie.  Esqr —  : 

a  Bread  Basket  of  Deverell, 

an  Epergne  Stand,  | 

the  Baskett,  !    T.     .,  „  , 

.,     t,         ,  >  Doct1  Howard, 

the  Branches, 

the  Plates,  J 

(  a  Tankard, 

5      2  pair  Sauce  Boats, 

2      2  pr.  Candle  Sticks, 

■{  2  pr.  Salts, 

Snuffers  pan, 

Mustard  Pott,  ladle  &  salt  ladles. 

Silver  mounted  Snuffers. 


21oz. 

L8dwt 

59  " 

3  " 

26  - 

5  " 

12  " 

4  » 

23  » 

5  » 

29  " 

18  " 

51  tl 

3  " 

43  " 

2  " 

9  " 

18  » 

3  kk 

18  " 

17 

12  Table  Spoons,  28oz.  L5dwt. 

'  a  Soup  ladle,  6  "       I   tl 

I  12  Desert  Spoons,  13  "  6  •• 

I  12  Tea  Spoons,  7  •■  1 7   •• 

Dec.  L4/91.     Bossenger  Foster  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

u  *     •     «     — have  also  received  the  blue   [taper,  1(1  Rolls — " 

Mch.  7/92.     X.  &  J.  Frazier  to  A.  C,  Boston  :— 

••  When  you  was  here,  you  talk'd  of  having  a  carpet  made  a  I 
the  Carpet  Manufactory  at  this  place,  a  set  <>f  Furniture  for  a 
Room,"  &c,  "but  for  neither  of  these  did  you  leave  any  direc- 
tions." 

June  14/  92.      X.  &  J.  F.  to  ('.  :— 

••  Maps  not  yet  ready  to  be  dl'1 ;  expect  them  this  day  or  to- 
morrow." 

June  16/92.     N.  F.,  Phila.,  to  C.  : 

" Inclosed  is  the  Small  Map ;  the  large  one  shall  lie  sent  you 
as  soon  as  it  can  be  procured." 

Juno  19/92.      X.  &  J.  F.  to  A.  C.  :— 

"  Our  Fr'd  Cutting  left  this  place  yesterday  morning  for  New 

York;   by  him  we  wrote  you  and  sent  you  the   Small   Map.     The 
large  one  not  being  yet  out  we  were  prevented  from  sending  it." 

July  5/92.      S.  J.  to  A.  C,  Boston  :— 

u  *     *  Mr.  Trumbull  has  selected  from   Barrow's   prints 

a  few  for  you,  which,  I  have  no  doubt,  will   not"  only  "please 
you,  but  every  one  who  may  see  them." 

July  N/'.i2.      Seth  Johnson  to   Andrew   Craigie: — 

"Your  prints  I  shall  send  by  first  good  opportunity,  they 
consist  of 

1  Shipwrecked  Sailor  Boy,  cost  £2.  2. 

2  from  Shakespear's  Much  ado  about  nothing,  4.  10 
2  Dancing  Dogs  &  Guinea  pigs,  3.  0 
2  farmer's  visit  to  his  Daughter  &  return.  1.  16 
2  Angry  farmer, — &  Boys  robbing  an  orchard.  1.  16 
2  Henery  &  Emma  &  Angelica  &  Sacriponte,  I.  1<> 

2  going  to  School  &  returning,  "   16 — 

2  first  Bite  and  just  breeched,  "   12 — 

1  Thoughts  on  Matrimony,  "     6 

£16.    1.0 
They  are  really  a  very  handsome   collection   of  prints.      Mr. 
Atkinson  will  go  in  a  day  or  two,  and  by  him,    if  possible.  I  will 
send  them." 
•> 


18 

Aug.  28/92.     N.  &  J.  F.  to  A.  ('.,  Boston  :— 

"Enclosed  you  will  find  receipt  for  the  large  Map  which  you 
left  us  a  mem0  of." 

Under  date  of  July  9/93,  there  i.s  an  account  of 
Nalbro'  &  JnS  Frazier  against  Andrew  Craigie,  Esq,r,  which 
is  endorsed:  "Bill  of  furniture  of  Mr.  Craigie's  Drawing 
Room,  $1034.14,  beside  the  carpet." 

The  items  are  as  folloAvs*: — 

"Dr. 

1793. 

Jany.  9th.     To  amont  of  G.  B 's1    Bill  for  Furniture  made 

for  you,"  Craigie,  "  viz  : — 

4  Window  Curtains,  as  per  particulars  renS  you  at 

£34.  3.  4  each,  £136.  13.  4  $364.45 

lb 

12  Arm  Chairs,  88.  18  237.07 

2  Settees,  40.  6.   10  107.58 

82  yds.  green  &  white  Damask,  96.   7  256.93 

Boards  for  making  boxes,  6.   10 
32  lbs  nails,  1.   12 

Making  10  Boxes,  3.   15 

8  yds  coarse  linen   to 

pack    the  window 

curtains  in  12 


12.     9  33.20 
To  56  yds  fancy  Chintz  Furniture  for 

coverings  for  the  Settees  &  Chairs,  12.  12                        33.60 

PorterS  of  Furniture  to  Vessel,  /10                         1.32 


£387.  16.  2  $1034.14 

Philadelphia,  July  9,  1793, 

Errors  Excepted, 

NALBRO'  &  JN9  FRAZIER." 

Under  date  of  January  4/93,  N.  &  J.  F.  had  written 
to  Mr.  Craigie,  Boston  : — 

"  We  wrote  you  20th  ult  and  advised  you  your  furniture  was 
finished.  We  have  at  last  met  with  an  opportunity  of  sending  it 
to  you,  &c."     Shipd  on  a  vessel  going  to  Boston. 

July  5/93,  four  days  before  the  date  of  the  account 
copied  above,  the  same  firm  writes  that  it  encloses   "  Bill 

1  Could  not  make  out  the  full  surname  in  MS. — S.  S.  G. 


19 

of  Lading  of  ten  boxes  containing  Furniture"  senl  l>\ 
vessel  to  Boston. 

The  profuse  hospitality  of  Mr.  Craigie  called  for  the 
purchase  of  more  plate. 

In  a  letter  from  Thos.  Mullett  iSc  Co.,  London,  dated 
August  14,  17(J">,  is  a  copy  of  an  earlier  letter  of  Thos. 
Mullett  to  Andrew  Craigie:   London,  May  29/95. 

"  *  *  *  Your  order  for  Plate  &  Glass  sent  us  by  Horace 
&  Seth  Johnson  in  theirs  of  1  ult"  is  in  Execution  and  may  be 
accomplished  in  about  a  mouth,  we  hope  in  time  for  the  earliesl 
of  your  fall  ships.  We  have  given  it  all  that  attention  which  its 
variety  demands." 

In  the  letter  of  August  14,  Thos.  Mullett  &  Co.  write  : — 

u  *  *  *  qu1.  chief  object  in  this  letter  is  to  inform  you 
that  we  have  ship'd  in  the  Parkman,  Dl.  C.  Deshon,  for  Boston 
your  order  of  plate  &  glass." 

Aug.  1>S,  the  same  firm  writes  : — 

u  *  *  *  -yy"e  now  enclose  you  Bill  of  Lading  &  Invoice  of 
Plate  &  Glass  to  your  debit  £360.  3.  4.  In  the  execution  of  this 
order  we  natter  ourselves  we  shall  afford  you  entire  satisfaction 
as  we  have  selected  of  the  best;  and  in  taste  adhered  to  that 
elegance  of  design  as  well  as  in  completeness  of  finish,  which 
we  think  cannot  be  excelled  by  any  of  our  Artists      *     *     *  ' 

One  of  the  first  things  that  Bossenger  Foster  did  for  his 
brother-in-law,  after  the  Craigie  House  had  been  secured, 
was  to  lay  in  a  supply  of  fuel.  Nov.  30/91,  he  writes  to 
Mr.  Craigie,  New  York  :— 

u  *  *  *  Outside  there  is  a  Wood  house  and  thirty  or  forty 
cord  of  wood  in  it  so  that  when  you  return  you  will  have  a  good 
fire  and  your  own  domestics  only — have  not  yet  got  Mr.  Brattle 
any  wood — altho'  have  used  all  my  endeavors — it  is  2;")/  a  Cord 
here — I  got  all  yours  up  in  Lighters — if  you  live  another  year 
you  will  not  fail  to  get  it  up  in  the  summer — to  save  money  & 
the  trouble,  which  is  worse — " 

Dec.  7,  Mr.  Craigie  writes  from  New  York  to  Mr. 
Foster  : — 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  of  the  provision  of  wood  you  have  made 
at  Cambridge — I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  procure  some  for  my 
friend  Brattle  as  I  fear  he  depended  on  what  I  said  to  him  lor 
his  being  supplied  " 


20 

Dec.  17,  Mr.  Foster  writes  to  Mr.  Craigie  (care  of 
Messrs.  Johnson,  New  York)  : — 

"  *  *  *  be  tranquil  on  your  Friend  Brattle's  acct  as 
have  procured  him  one  Lighter  load  of  wood  with  which  he  is 
much  pleased — believe  he  will  not  neglect  that  matter  another 
year." 

What  a  flood  of  pleasant  thoughts  arise  in  the  memories 

of  graduates  interested  in  olden  times  at  Harvard  College 

as   they  read   of  wood  berng  brought   up   the   Charles  to 

Cambridge.     James  Russell  Lowell  writes  : — 

"  Cambridge  has  long  had  its  port,  but  the  greater  part  of  its 
maritime  trade  was,  thirty  years  ago"  (i.  e.  about  the  year  1825), 
"  intrusted  to  a  single  Argo,  the  sloop  Harvard,  which  belonged 
to  the  College,  and  made  annual  voyages  to  that  vague  Orient 
known  as  Down  East,  bringing  back  the  wood  that,  in  those 
days,  gave  to  winter  life  at  Harvard  a  crackle  and  a  cheerfulness, 
for  the  loss  of  which  the  greater  warmth  of  anthracite  hardly 
compensates.  *  *  *  What  a  vista  of  mystery  and  adven- 
ture did  her  sailing  open  to  us !  With  what  pride  did  we  hail 
her  return  !  She  was  our  scholiast  on  Robinson  Crusoe  and  the 
Mutiny  of  the  Bounty."  1 

In    speaking    of   the  attractions    of    Commencement   at 

Harvard  College,  many  years  ago,  John  Holmes  writes  : — 

"The  College  sloop,  that  shadowy  craft  which  floats  in  time 
indefinitely,  always  arrived  in  time  for  the  floodtide  on  Tues- 
day,"2 so  as  to  be  on  hand  for  the  festivities  of  the  next  day. 

"  The  Watertown  lighter,"  he  writes  again,  "was  uniformly 
drawn  ashore  Tuesday  evening  by  the  perils  of  the  seas,  that  is 
by  the  strong  current  that  prevailed  in  the  river  about  Commence- 
ment time.  The  Captain  and  crew,  like  judicious  men,  made  it 
a  point  to  improve  their  minds  while  detained,  and  always 
attended  the  literary  exercises  on  the  Common."  3 

"  Our  fuel,"  writes  Josiah  Quincy  of  the  class  of  1821,  "  was 
wood,  which  was  furnished  by  the  College ;  it  being  cut  from 
some  lands  in  Maine  which  were  among  its  possessions,  and 
brought  to  the  wharf  in  the  college  sloop  the  'Harvard.'  This 
arrangement  was  supposed  to  cause  a  great  saving,  and  the 
authorities  naturally  prided  themselves  upon  the  sagacity  which 
made  this  Eastern  property  so  productive.  It  was  not  until  Dr. 
Bowditch,  the  great  mathematician,  was  given  a  place  in  the 
government  that  this  arrangement  was  quietly  abandoned.  This 
eminent    gentleman — perhaps    from    his    natural    aptitude    for 


1  Lowell's  Fireside  Travels,  pp.  40,  41. 

2  In  the  paper  "  Harvard  Square  "  in  the  Harvard  Book,  v.  '_',  p.  3t>.  3  Ibid. 


21 

figures — succeeded  in  demonstrating  to  his  associates  thai  it 
would  be  much  cheaper  for  the  college  to  buy  wood  from  the 
dearest  dealer  than  to  cut  it  on  its  own  lands  and  transport  if  in 
its  own  sloop."  ' 

To  show  the  change  that  has  come  about,  let  me  give 
another  quotation  from  Mr.  Quincy  : — 

u  My  classmate,  Otis,  had  ornamented  his  mantelpiece  with 
two  curious  black  stones,  which  excited  great  interest  in  his 
visitors.  He  had  made  a  journey  to  Washington,  to  see  his 
father,  who  was  a  senator,  and  had  brought  these  rarities  home 
as  special  memorials  of  his  travels.  He  had  a  strange  tale  to 
tell  concerning  them.  It  seemed  that  the  people  in  Baltimore 
actually  burned  just  such  stones  as  these;  and.  wonderful  to 
relate,  there  was  no  smoke  in  their  chimneys.  I  believe  that 
these  singular  minerals  have  become  so  popular  in  Harvard 
College  that  they  are  now  brought  there  in  considerable  quantities. 
The  only  change  is  that  they  are  no  longer  displayed  on  the 
mantelpiece,  but  just  belowr  it — in  the  grate.  They  will  be 
recognized  under  the  name  of  anthracite  coal."2 

Mr.  Craigie  laid  in  a  stoic  of  wine  while  making  prepar- 
ations to  live  in  Cambridge  and  continued  to  buy  it  after 
becoming  settled  there. 

Aug.  28/91,  Seth  Johnson  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie, 
Boston  : — 

"  You  may  expect  your  wine  *  *  *  by  the  first  vessel. 
Mr.  Jackson  arrived  here  yesterday  from  Georgia — he  says  the 
wine  is  not  yet  sold — &  that  there  are  many  waiting  to  purchase 
it — he  supposes  it  will  not  sell  under  .'500  Dolls,  a  pipe — you  may 
be  assured  he  will  procure  it  if  possible.' 

Sept.  1/91,  Seth  Johnson  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston  : — 
41  By  the  first  vessel  you  shall  receive  the  wine." 

March     18/92,     Seth     Johnson     to     Andrew      Craigie. 

Boston  : — 

i.  *  *  *  jjy  Barnard  I  shall  send  you  a  pipe  of  wine, 
between  7  &  8  years  old,  which  I  am  sure  will  please  you.  I 
wish  you  to  examiue  the  pipe — the  Bung  is  leaded  and  there  is 
not  a  spilt  hole  in  the  eask — when  you  receive  it  you  iiiu-t  line  ii 
down  with  a  little  milk." 


1  Figures  of  the  Past,  p.  41. 
'Ibid.,  pp.  41,42. 


22 

Aug.    23/92,   Horace    Johnson    to    Andrew    Craigie, 

Boston  : — 

"  *  *  *  If  the  wine  from  Georgia  arrives  here  it  shall  be 
shipped  to  you  *  *  *  I  shall  also  send  you  a  box  of  excel- 
lent Havannah  Segars  rec'd  a  few  days  since  from  Charleston." 

Sept.  20/92,   Seth  Johnson  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston  : 

u  *  *  *  py  £ap  Barnard  I  have  sent  you  2  pipes  wine — a 
box  of  Spanish  Segars  &c." 

March  7/92,  Nalbro'  and  Jn"  Frazier,  of  Philadelphia, 
write  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston  : — 

"  When  you  were  here,  you  talk'd  of  *  *  *  speaking  to 
Henry  Hill  respecting  Madeira  wine  for  your  own  use." 

June  14/92,  the  same  firm  writes  to  Mr.  Craigie  : — 

41  The  Ale,  Cyder,  &c,  will  be  ready  to  go  with  your  other 
Things  which  will  be  ship'd  tomorrow  for  Boston." 

dune  1(3/92,  Nalbro'  Frazier  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

"P.  S.  All  the  Things  left  in  our  care  were  ship'd  yesterday, 
and  to  the  list  we  have  added  4  cases  Claret  and  some  best  Hav- 
annah Segars.     The  Ale  and  Cyder  also  was  sent  from  Morris's." 

Mch.  16,  1819.     Thomas  Parkin,  Fayal,  to  Mr.  Andrew 

Craigie  : — 

u  *  #  #  jje  savs  yOU  w}sn  t0  have  a  Sample  of  our  best 
wine.  I  send  you  two  bottles  by  Cap"  Shepard  who  is  so  kind 
as  to  take  charge  of  them.  They  are  prepared  exactly  in  the 
same  manner  as  such  Wines  are  in  Madeira,  a  very  expensive 
and  tedeous  process  and  always  picked  Wines.  I  have  lately 
seen  Madeira  of  £60  not  so  good  as  ours  of  £36,  say  four  dollars 
to  the  pound  strg.  I  would  take  American  produce  in  payment, 
by  which  means  they  would  become  reasonable." 

Mr.  Craigie  buys  horses  through  his  correspondents  in 
Philadelphia. 

duly    2(i,     1791,     Nalbro'     Frazier     writes    to    Andrew 

(  Yaigie,  Boston  : — 

"  Jo  has  arrived  with  the  horses  in  good  order.  The}7  appear 
to  be  sound  and  probably  will  be  serviceable  horses.  *  *  * 
Upon  the  whole,  I  think  you  will  be  pleas'd  with  them.  I  have 
written  our  Fr.  Johnson  that  they  are  here  and  ready  to  go  on  by 
any  person  he  may  send  for  them.  Jo  will  leave  this  with  the 
other  horse  sometime  today  or  early  tomorrow  morning." 


23 

Aug.  28/91,  Seth  Johnson  writes   to    Mr.   Craigie  from 

New  York  : — 

"  *  *  *  One  of  them,"  speaking  of  the  horses,  »  is  an 
excellent  Saddle  Horse — and  indeed  both — I  hope  they  will 
please  you." 

In  1792  there  is  more  correspondence  regarding  horses. 
June  14/5)2,  N.  &  J.  Frazier  write  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

"  Nothing  further  done  about  the  Horses,"  (a  memorandum 
had  been  left  with  the  Fraziers  to  buy  horses  it'  found  good  on 
trial  and  not  too  high  in  price). 

dune  18/92,  to  Andrew  Craigie,  New  York  : — 

"Our. J.  Frazier  will  try  the  Horses  this  afternoon  with  Mr. 
Lewis." 

June  19.     To  Andrew  Craigie,  New  York  : — 

"Mr.  Lewis  being  engaged  yesterday  cl'd  not  go  with  our 
J.  Frazier  to  try  the  Horses,  but  they  intend  doing  it  this  after- 
noon." 

Aug.  28/92.     To  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston,  Mass.  : — 

"As  soon  as  we  send  forward  the  *  *  *  Horses  to  you," 
&c. 

Sept.  27/92.     To  Andrew'  Craigie,  Boston  : — 

"  The  Horses  shall  be  sent  you  shortly." 

Mr.  Craigie  buys  a  stallion  and  mare. 

May  18/92,   John  Coles,  London,  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

"I  now  advise  you  of  my  having  made  a  purchase  for  your 
account  of  a  Stallion  and  a  Mare,  and  which  will  both  be  shipped 
*  *  *  for  Boston." — William  Gibbs,  a  young  man  of  good 
character,  had  been  engaged  to  go  with  the  horses.  The  pedi- 
gree of  the  stallion  was  enclosed.  The  mare  had  a  foal. — "I 
gave  one  hundred  guineas"  for  the  stallion.  "I  gave  the  same 
price  for  the  mare  with  a  foal  at  her  foot  six  weeks  old.  My 
engagement  for  the  passage  of  the  Horses  and  Mail  Servant  is 
forty  guineas,  but  the  ship  finds  nothing  but  water." 

Following  are  some  extracts  from  letters  regarding 
carriages  owned  by  Mr.  Craigie: — 

Nalbro'  Frazier  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston,  July 

2(1/91  :— 

"  Clarke  has  not  yet  quite  finished  your  riding  chair;  as  soon 
as  it  is  fit  to  send  it  shall  be  sbip'd  round  to  New    York.     I  shall 


24 

pay  attention  to  having  the  Chair  finish'd  in   the  neatest  manner 
possible,  and  sent  round  to  you  when  done." 

Aug.  28/91,  Seth  Johnson  to  Andrew  Craigie,    Boston  : 

"  Mr.  Frazier  informs  me  your  Chair  will  be  shipped  by'the 
Brig  Maria,  Capt.  Hopkins,  which  was  to  sail  in  a  few  days." 

Sept.  3/91,   X.  &  J.  Frazier  to  Andrew  Craigie  : — 

"Your  riding  Chair  we  ship'd  by  the  Brig1  Maria,  Capt.  Hop- 
kins, who  sailed  this  day  wefck." 

Sept.  5. 

"Enclosed  you  will  find  Clark's  Bill  of  Chair  he  has  been 
paid  by  us,  Docf  Caldwell  being  absent  at  the  Time,  Hi  dollars, 
and  since  by  Caldwell  84  dolls.,  which  leaves  a  balance  due  him 
of  £8.5/  which  will  be  paid  him  if  you  approve  the  Bill — The 
amount  being  greater  than  we  expected  we  shall  delay  the  pay- 
ment of  the  Balance  till  we  hear  from  you." 

July  26/91,  Nalbro'  Frazier  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston  : 

"Hunter  &  Caldwell  had  agreed  with  Mr.  Pemberton  for  his 
light  waggon  at  £75,  but  when  they  call'd  to  receive  it  they 
found  he  had  taken  away  the  Boot  with  some  other  things  which 
belong' d  to  it,  and  refused  to  Deliver  them  with  the  waggon, 
altho'  he  contracted  so  to  do.  They  therefore  tho't  it  best  to 
decline  the  purchase — they  are  now  about  the  one  which  }tou  saw 
belonging  to  Mr.  Pleasants ;  he  has  offer'd  it  at  £100 — at  that 
price  I  think  it  is  cheap,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  I  think 
they  will  strike  with  him  for  it,  if  they  cannot  get  it  under.  They 
have  offer'd  £90." 

Dec.  17/91,  Bossenger  Foster  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie, 

New  York  : — 

"  *  *  *  In  Expectation  of  a  deal  of  snow  and  that  you 
would  want  Convenient  Carriage  here  this  winter,  I  have  building 
for  you  a  pair  of  runners  (which  doubt  not  will  please  you)  on 
which  to  hang  the  Coaches.  They  will  be  the  thing  and  will  cost 
you  25  Dollars." 

Jan.  14/K2,  X.  c<:  J.  Frazier  to  Andrew  Craigie,  New 
York  :— 

"  Phaeton  not  yet  finished." 

dan.  18/92,  The  same  firm  writes  to  Mr.  Craigie  : — 

"  When  the  Phaeton  will  be  finish'd  is  impossible  for  us  to 

say." 


25 

Jan.  26/92,  The  same  firm  to  Mr.  Graigie : — 

"  Your  Phaeton  will  be  completed  this  day.  We  shall  have 
the  same  carefully  put  up  &  ship  it  to  you  by  the  first  oppor- 
tunity which  offers  for  Boston,  unless  we  receive  your  directions 
to  the  contrary." 

"  1792. 

Andrew  Graigie,  Esq1  to  Robt.  Fielding,  Dr. 

To  new  phaeton  &  harness,    £235.0.6" 

"Tradition  avers,"  writes  Mr.  Samuel  Longfellow,  that 
when  the  Duke  of  Kent  had  left  Boston — and  of  his  visit 
something  will  be  said  later — "Mr.  Craigie  purchased  his 
carriage  and  horses."' ' 

Speaking  of  the  latter,  Mr.  Drake  states  that  the  Duke 
of  Kent  "drove  a  handsome  pair  of  bays  with  clipped 
ears,  then  an  unusual  sight  in  the  vicinity  of  Old  Bos- 
ton."2 

Mr.  Craigie  imported  fowls  from  Philadelphia;  did  his 
mouth  water  as  he  thought  of  the  capons  he  had  eaten  in 
that  city? 

November  30/91,  Nalbro'  &  Jn°   Frazier  to   Bossenger 

Foster,  Boston  : — 

"  Inclosed  you  will  find  receipt  for  eight  Fowls,  say  two  Cocks 
and  six  Hens,  which  you  will  please  to  take  charge  of  for  our 
mutual  Fr'd  Andrew  Craigie,  Esqr." 

Dec.  5/91,  X.  &  J.  Frazier  to  Andrew  Craigie,  New 
York  :— 

"The  Fowls  we  sent  by  the  Brig' Ceres,"  which  "  sail'd  last 
Thursday  for  Boston.  The  receipt  for  them  was  inclos'd  to  Mr. 
B.  Foster;  we  hope  they"  arrived  "  there  safe." 

Dec.  14/91,  Bossenger  Foster  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

"Have  received  the  fowls  from  Philadelphia,  all  in  good 
order,  except  the  old  Cock — but  like  to  have  lost  them  all  by 
severity  of  weather — shall  take  great  care  of  them — they  are  a 
fine  brood." 

In  the  middle  of  17H2,  a  cook  was  engaged  for  Mr. 
Craigie  in  Philadelphia. 


»  S.  Longfellow's  Life  of  H.  W.  L.,  v.  1,  p.  262. 
-  Drake,  p.  311. 


2(5 

Juno  14/92,  X.  &.  J.  Frazier  write  to  Mr.  Craigie: — 

"  *  *  *  We  have  seen  the  Cook,  who  has  promised  to  give 
us  an  answer  on  Saturday.  We  shall  at  any  rate  endeavor  to 
get  him  on  &  let  him  make  trial  of  the  place,  which  if  we  can 
persuade  him  to  do,  we  think  he  will  not  be  dissatisfied  with  his 
Situation,  his  ostensible  reason  for  not  going  was  that  the  Wages 
were  too  low." 

June  16/92,  the  cook  was  not  yet  engaged. 
June  18/92.     To  Andrew  Craigie,  New  York  : — 

"  The  Cook  wld  not  consent  to  go  on  unless  you  wld  allow 
him  15  Dolls  pr  month  which  we  have  assured  him  he  shall 
receive,  and  if  upon  his  being  with  you  6  weeks  or  two  months, 
and  you  do  not  approve  of  him,  you  have  a  right  to  discharge 
him,  paying  him  at  that  rate,  he  leaves  this  place  this  day  week, 
and  we  shall  consign  him  to  our  mutual  Friends,  H.  &  S.  John- 
son &  Co." 

June  26/92,  N.  &  J.  Frazier  to  Mr.  Craigie  :— 

"  The  Cook  takes  this  letter  to  you  whom  we  have  engaged 
shall  receive  fifteen  Dollars  p'  month  *  *  *  P.  S.  It  is 
also  agreed  that  if  the  Cook  sh'd  not  continue  with  you,  that 
expenses  to  &  from  Phila  shall  be  allowed  exclusive  of  the 
fifteen  dollars  p'  month." 

New  York,  July  7/92, 

"Dear  sir,  We  have  advanced  the  Cook  Sixteen  Dollai-s. 

H.  &  S.  JOHNSON  &  CO." 

July  8/92,  Seth  Johnson  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston  : — 

it  *  #  *  Your  Cook  will  leave  this  on  Monday  *  *  * 
he  goes  by  water  to  Newport." 

So  much  as  to  the  preparations  for  opening  the  Craigie 
mansion.  But  something;  more  was  needed.  There  was 
as  yet  no  mistress  of  the  house. 

March  11/92,  Seth  Johnson  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie, 
Boston  : — 

"  That  you  may  soon  find  in  some  worthy  woman  that  wife 
whose  good  qualities  will  tend  to  increase  your  happiness,  and 
make  the  residue  of  your  days  glide  smoothly  on  in  uninterrupted 
felicity  is  the  sincere  wish  of  your  affectionate  S.  JOHNSON." 

Six  months  later,  Sept.    20/92,    Mr.   Johnson   writes  to 

Mr.  Craigie  : — 

kt  'T  is  said  here  that  Miss  F r  has  dismissed  her  lover  and 


27 

that  you  are  to  become  the  happy  one!     How  is  it,   if  I  may  ask 
the  question — " 

In  the  previous  year,  May  31/91,  Mr.  John  Brown 
Cutting  had  written  from  London  : — 

"  I  am  still  not  without  hopes  of  taking  you  by  the  hand  and 
felicitating  you  on  your  new  state  of  domestication  at  Cam- 
bridge— before  the  Summer  closes."  ' 

Now,  Nov.  ll/!>2,  Mr.  Cutting  writes  to  Mr.  Craigie 
from  the  "ship  Mary,  off  Boston  Light  House": — 

"  *  *  *  I  wish  you  entirely  happy;  pray  marry  and  be 
so,  and  presenting  me  most  affectionately  to  Miss  Shaw  and  the 
whole  of  your  Brother's  family  accept  my  adieus  and  thanks  and 
blessings." 

Matters  develop  naturally,  and  .January  21/93,  Mr. 
Horace  Johnson  is  able  to  write  to  Mr.  Craigie,  Boston  : — 

''Permit  me  to  felicitate  you  on  your  marriage — and  to  assure 
you  that  no  circumstance  can  afford  me  more  real  pleasure  than 
a  knowledge  of  your  happiness — that  you  may  ever  enjoy  it 
undisturbed  is  my  most  fervent  prayer.  I  will  thank  you  to 
make  my  congratulations  to  Mrs.  C — -,  for  whom  I  feel  the 
highest  respect.     *     *     *  " 

Mr.  Craigie  married  a  daughter  of  the  Reverend  Bezaleel 
Shaw  (Harvard  College,  17(52)  of  Nantucket,2 
Mr.  Samuel  Longfellow  says  : — 

Mr.  Craigie's  "wealth  and  style  won  the  hand  if  not  the  heart 
of  the  beautiful  Miss  Shaw  of  Nantucket,  whose  young  lover 
had  gone  to  seek  his  fortune  on  the  seas,  and  came  back  only  to 
find  her  married."  3 

Josiah  Quincy,  whom  I  have  quoted  before,  tells  the 
following  story  : — 

Mr.  Craigie  "kept  a  princely  bachelor's  establishment  at"  his 
*  *  *  "  house,  and  was  in  the  habit  of  exercising  a  generous 
hospitality.  A  curious  story  relating  to  his  marriage  was  currenl 
among  his  contemporaries,  and  there  can  be  now  no  harm  in 
giving  it  as  I  have  heard  it  from  their  lips. 

A  great  garden  party  had  been  given   by  Mr.  Craigie,  and 


'  June  10,  '92,  N.  &  .1.  Frazier  to  Andrew  Craigie,  New  York:— 
"  Our  Fr'd  Cutting  left  this  place  yesterday  morning  for  New  York:  by  him  w< 
w  rote  you." 

-  llarv.  Book,  v.  2,  j».  431. 

;  Lite  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1.,  )p.  262. 


28 

all  the  fashion  and  beauty  of  Boston  were  assembled  in  his 
spacious  grounds.  The  day  was  perfect,  the  entertainment  was 
lavish,  and  the  company  were  bent  on  enjoying  themselves. 
Smiles  and  deference  met  the  host  upon  every  side,  and  new- 
comers were  constantly  arriving  to  pay  that  homage  to  wealth 
and  sumptuous  liberality  which  from  imperfect  mortals  they 
have  always  elicited.  'Craigie,'  exclaimed  an  intimate  friend  to 
the  host  during  one  of  the  pauses  of  compliment,  •  what  can  man 
desire  that  you  have  not  got?  Here  are  riches,  friends,  a  scene 
of  enchantment  like  this,  and  son  the  master  of  them  all  !  -I 
am  the  most  miserable  of  men  ! '  was  the  startling  reply.  '  If 
you  doubt  it,  you  shall  know  my  secret.  Do  you  see  those  two 
young  ladies  just  turning  down  the  walk?  Well,  the}'  are  both 
engaged,  and  with  one  of  them  I  am  desperately  in  love.'  There 
was  no  time  for  more,  for  the  crowd  again  surged  round  the  host, 
and  the  friend  was  left  to  meditate  upon  the  revelation  which  had 
been  made.  One  of  the  ladies  who  had  been  pointed  out  was  a 
great  beauty  of  the  time,  and  it  so  happened  that  Mr.  Craigie's 
confidant  was  on  very  intimate  terms  with  her  family.  It  was 
well  known  that  the  match  she  was  about  to  make  did  not  gratify 
the  ambitious  views  of  her  relations.  Now,  whether  Mr.  Craigie's 
friend  betrayed  his  secret  to  the  father  of  this  young  person 
cannot  certainly  be  known :  but  the  current  report  was  that  he 
did  so.  At  all  events,  shortly  after  the  garden  party,  he  broke 
in  upon  the  Croesus  of  Cambridge  with  an  exultant  air,  exclaim- 
ing.  '  Craigie.  I  have  come  to  tell  you  glorious  news;  the  coast 

is  clear;    Miss has  broken   off  her  engagement!'     -Why, 

what  the  deuce  is  that  to  me?'  was  the  disappointing  reply. 
•  Good  heavens,  man,  don't  you  remember  telling  me  that  you 
were  desperately  iu  love  with  one  of  the  young  ladies  you  pointed 
out  at  the  garden  party?'  'To  be  sure,  I  did,'  sighed  Mr. 
Craigie.  •  but,  unfortunately,  I  referred  to  the  other  young  lady.'  " 
Now  *  *  *  "it  happened — or  was  said  to  have  happened — 
that  -the  other  young  lady'  subsequently  found  good  reason  to 
break  off  her  engagement,  and.  as  Mrs.  Craigie,  came  to  preside 
over  all  future  garden  parties."1 


1  Quiney.     Figures  of  the  past.  pp.  25-27. 

In  7'lif  Cambridge  Tribuneat  April  21, 1900,  the  following  version  of  thi>  Btorj 
is  given  as  having  been  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Cantabrigia  Club,  the  day 
before,  bj  >I i —  Alice  M.  Longfellow: — 

••  There  was  a  party  at  "  Mr.  <  Craigie's  •■  home  one  evening,  and  during  the  coarse 
of  the  merriment,  some  one  asked.  •  Why  don't  you  jret  married.  Mr.  Craigie?' 
■  I  would,"  he  replied.  '  if  I  could  have  one  of  those  young  ladies  on  the  sofa.'  The 
young  ladies  to  whom  he  referred  were  a  Mis~  Foster  and  a  Miss  Nancy  Shaw. 
They  overheard  the  remark,  and  shortly  after  Miss  Foster  dismissed  her  devoted 
lover  in  anticipation  of  the  good  fortune  which  seemingly  awaited  her.  But  it  was 
Hiss  Shaw  to  whom  the  happiness  came.  To  make  the  story  more  romantic,  the 
joy  turned  to  sorrow.  At  Miss  Shaw's  house,  where  young  men  were  taken  into  the 
family  and  prepared  for  coUege,  there  came  a  young  Southerner  one  day  who  early 
began  to   take  an   interest   in  his   teacher's   (laughter.    The   interest  changed  to 


29 

"Shortly  before  her  death,"  says  Mr.  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  a> 
quoted  by  Mr.  Samuel  Longfellow,  Mrs.  Craigie  "  burned  a  large 
quantity   of    papers   which   she   had   stowed   away   in   an   upper 

chamber,  and  among  them  the  letters  of  her  young  lover."  * 

The  darts  of  cupid  struck  two  other  persons  in  whom 
we  have  become  interested. 

July  .V-'-.  Seth  Johnson  writes  to  Andrew  Craigie, 
Boston  : — 

" I  have  a  letter  for  you  from  Bossenger,  dun'' — which  I  will 
seud  by  some  favorable  conveyance — poor  fellow,  I  am  afraid 
Miss  S's  charms  have  made  an  impression  on  him." 

Sept.  23/96.      \.  &  J.  Frazier  to  Mr.  Craigie  :— 

"  *  *     Our  Nalbro'  Frazier  is  happy  to  announce  to  you 

his  marriage,  which  took  place  Saturday  evg.,  13  ins*.  Our 
respects  to  Mrs.  Craigie.     *     *     *  " 

Mr.  Craigie,  as  has  already  been  stated,  exercised  a 
generous  hospitality  at  Cambridge.  Mr.  Amorv  says  lie 
was  fond  of  display.-  Mr.  Curtis,  after  speaking  of  the 
oriental  lavishness  of  Nathaniel  Tracy,  a  former  occupant 
of  the  Craigie  House,  as  we  have  seen,  writes  of  Mr. 
( Jraigie  : — 

"  Tradition  is  hard  upon  him.  It  declares  that  he  was  a  huge 
man,  heavy  and  dull :  and  evidently  looks  upon  his  career  as  the 
high  lyric  of  Thomas  Tracy's,  3  muddled  into  tough  prose."4 


admiration  and  then  to  courtship.  Mr.  Shaw  was  not  ignorant  of  Cupid's  Butter- 
ings  and,  consequently,  he  wrote  the  young  man's  father.  The  boy  was  called 
home,  the  maid  put  aside  her  feelings  and  that  was.  apparently,  the  end  of  it. 
Then  came  the  marriage  with  Mr.  Craigie,  which  both  families  hailed  with  delight. 
Several  pleasant  years  followed,  until  one  day  Mrs.  Craigie  received  a  letter.  Upon 
opening  it  She  found  it  was  from  her  former  lover,  for  such  he  had  been,  stating 
that  his  father  was  now  dead  and  he  was  free  to  do  as  he  pleased.  He  wrote  that 
he  was  coming  north,  hoping  to  find  her  as  faithful  as  he  had  always  thought  her. 
That  was  the  end  of  Mrs.  Craigie's  happiness.  From  that  hour  she  lived  apart 
from  her  husband,  serving  him  and  managing  his  household  as  a  faithful  wife,  but 
always  remote  in  her  thoughts  and  her  feelings.  After  her  husband's  death  she 
lived  a  lonely  life,  apart  from  the  world,  having  dismissed  all  inn  two  of  her  twelve 
servants  and  living  in  the  rear  portion  of  her  house,  the  front  of  which  she  let.  " 

it  appears  from  the  story  told  by  Miss  LongfeUow  that  it  was  Miss  Foster  who 
was  referred  to  by  Seth  Johnson  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Craigie  oi   Sept.  20,  '92,  quoted 

above,  in  which  he   wrote:     ••    T  is  said   here   that   Mis>   1" r  has   dismissed  her 

lover." 

1  Life  of  H.  W.  LongfeUow,  v.  I,  p.  _v,:,. 

-  Amorv.  p.  _'7. 
The  name  is  Nathaniel  and  not  Thomas. 

J  Curtis,  in  Homes,  p.  J7T. 


30 

Whatever  truth  there  may  he  in  these  statements,  Mr. 
Craigie's  hospitality  was  profuse  and  seems  to  have  been 
generally  accepted. 

Tradition,  says  Mr.  Curtis,  mentions  a  dinner  party  as 
given  by  him  every  Saturday.1 

Mr.  Josiah  P.  Quincy  states  that  he  "sometimes  enter- 
tained over  a  hundred  guests  at  the  brilliant  Commence- 
ment festival."'2  ? 

Samuel  Longfellow  writes  : 

Mr.  Craigie  "  entertained  the  merchant-princes  of  Boston  ;  and 
once,  according  to  tradition,  a  prince  of  diplomats,  Talleyrand, 
with  whom  Mrs.  Craigie,  much  better  educated  than  her  husband, 
could  converse  in  his  native  French."  3 

Mr.  Curtis's  words  are  : 

"Tradition  *  *  *  on  one  occasion,  points  out  peruked  and 
powdered  Talleyrand  among  the  guests.  This  betrays  the 
presence  in  the  house  of  the  best  society  then  to  be  had."  4 

Talleyrand,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  1793, — 

"  was  ordered  by  Pitt  to  quit  the  island  "  of  Great  Britain  "  in 
twenty-four  hours,  and,  as  he  had  been  proscribed  by  Robes- 
pierre, he  took  refuge  in  the  United  States.  By  the  agency  of 
Chenier,  he  obtained  permission  to  return  to  France  in  Septem- 
ber, 1795." 5 

Prince  Edward,  afterwards  the  Duke  of  Kent,  the  father 

of  Queen  Victoria,  also  visited  the  Craigies. 

Drake  says  : — 

"In  December,  1794,  the  Duke  of  Kent,  or  Prince  Edward,  as 
he  was  styled,  was  in  Boston,  and  was  received  during  his 
sojourn  with  marked  attention.  He  was  then  in  command  of  the 
forces  in  Canada,  but  afterwards  joined  the  expedition  under  Sir 
Charles  Grey,  to  the  French  West  Indies,  where  he  so  greatly 
distinguished  himself  by  his  reckless  bravery  at  the  storming  of 
Martinique  and  Guadaloupe  that  the  flank  division  which  he 
commanded  became  the  standing  toast  at  the  admiral's  and 
commander-in-chief's   table      *     *     *     The  prince  was  accom- 


1  Curtis,  in  Homes,  p.  277. 

-  Winsor's  Memorial  Hist,  of  Boston,  v.  4.  p.  15. 

a  Life  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  p.  262. 

4  Curtis,  in  Homes,  p.  277. 

■  Thomas,  under  "  TaUeyrand-Pdrigord." 


:;i 

panied  to  Boston  by  his  suite.  He  was  very  devoted  to  the 
ladies,  especially  so  to  Mrs.  Thomas  Russell,"  wife,  it  will  be 
remembered,  of  a  former  owner  and  occupant  of  Craigie  House. 
"He  k  attended'  her  to  the  Assembly  at  Concert  Hall.  He  danced 
four  country-dances  with  her  for  a  companion,  but  she  fainted 
before  finishing  the  last,  and  he  danced  with  no  one  else,  :it 
which  every  one  of  the  other  eighty  ladies  present  was  much 
enraged." l  , 

Was  it  not  at  the  close  of  the  year  1798,  or  early  in 
1794,  that  Prince  Edward  visited  Boston?  The  following 
passages  would  seem  to  make  such  a  correction  neces- 
sary. 

"At  Gibraltar"  the  Duke  of  Kent  "was  put  in  command  of  the 
7th  regiment  of  foot  (royal  fusiliers).  He  at  once  showed 
himself  a  thorough  martinet,  and  became  so  unpopular  with  his 
men  that  in  May,  1791,  he  was  sent  to  Canada."  Late  in  179o  he 
"  received,  at  his  own  request,  orders  to  join  Sir  Charles  (after- 
wards Lord)  Grey's  force  in  the  West  Indies.  The  navigation 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  being  interrupted,  he  travelled  by  land  at 
considerable  risk  from  Quebec  to  Boston,  and  there  took  ship 
for  Martinique,  where  he  arrived  4  March,  1794.  On  the  close 
of  operations  he  returned  to  Canada."2 

Following  are  one  or  two  extracts  from  letters  relating 
to  the  hospitality  of  Mr.  Craigie. 

Sept.  20/92,  Seth  Johnson  to  Andrew  Craigie,  Boston  : 

u  *  *  *  Mrs.  Sands  and  family  speak  highly  of  your 
polite  attentions  to  them." 

I  have  already  quoted  from  a  letter  of  Mr.  John  Brown 
Cutting,  sending  his  "adieus  and  thanks  and  blessings"  in 
November,  1792. 


1  Drake,  p.  310. 

2  The  following  passage  from  the  Columbian  Centinel,  Boston,  of  February  8, 
1794,  given  by  Or.  Samuel  A.  Green  in  Groton  Historical  Series,  vol.  '_',  p.  361,  fixes 
the  date  of  Prince  Edward's  arrival  in  Boston  as  February  6,  1794: — 

"  On  Thursday  last,  Prince  Edward,  son  of  his  Brittanic  Majesty,  arrived  in  this 
town  from  Quebec  We  are  told  that  his  highness  has  lately  been  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  Brigadier-General,  and  is  to  have  a  command  in  the  army  in  the  West- 
Indies." 

Doctor  Green  gives  (pp.  360,  iSOl)  in  the  article  quoted,  some  interesting  particu- 
lars of  Prince  Edward's  journey  from  Quebec  to  Boston. 

"  Edward  Augustus,  Duke  of  Kent  and  Stratheiu,  prince,  fourth  son  of  George 
III.,  by  CJneen  Charlotte,  was  born  on  2  Nov.,  1767."    (J.  M.  Rigg). 


32 

Julv  2U/\n,  William  Bennett,  after  expressing  gratitude 
for  courtesies  extended  during  a  visit  to  Mr.  Craigie, 
writes  to  him  : — 

kk  On  board  the  Schooner  Roebuck,  Captain  Crowell,  bound 
for  Boston,  is  2  Mocking  Birds,  which  you  will  oblige  me  by 
presenting  with  my  most  respectfull  compliments  to  Mrs. 
Craigie     *     *     *  " 

Mr.  Craigie  continued  active  in  business  after  going  to 
Cambridge  to  live.  His  name  appears  in  the  Philadelphia 
Directory  for  1  793  as  a  Director  of  the  first  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  l  The'  Craigie  manuscripts  show7  that 
requests  were  made  to  Mr.  Craiaie  by  gentlemen  living  in 
Boston  or  the  vicinity  to  secure  for  them  shares  in  the 
stock  of  that  bank. 

It  will  be  remembered  by  persons  familiar  with  the 
history  of  Cambridge  that  at  about  the  time  Mr.  Craigie 
took  up  his  residence  there,  there  was  a  great  speculation 
in  lands  going  on  in  Cambridgeport.  Mr.  Craigie  soon 
started  another  great  land  movement. 

"  While  the  measures  adopted  for  the  improvement  of  Cam- 
bridgeport were  in  the  '  full  tide  of  successful  experiment.' " 
writes  Dr.  Paige,  the  historian  of  Cambridge,  "a  similar  enter- 
prise was  undertaken  at  Lechmere  Point,  in  which  the  prime 
mover  was  Andrew  Craigie.  The  earliest  transactions  were 
conducted  by  Mr.  Craigie  with  much  skill  and  secrecy.  His 
name  does  not  appear  in  the  records  until  the  whole  scheme  was 
accomplished."  2 

In  purchases  and  other  transactions  the  familiar  names 
of  Seth  Johnson,  Bossenger  and  Mrs.  Foster  and  Samuel 
Haven  appear.  Purchases  began  as  early  as  January 
31,  1795,  and  lasted,  certainly,  to  May  5,  1807.  At  the 
latter  date  Mr.  Craigie — 

"  owned  about  three  hundred  acres  of  land  in  two  parcels  nearly 
adjoining  each  other;  the  easterly  parcel  included  almost  the 
whole  of  East  Cambridge."3 

May  12,    1808,   the  Governor   of  Massachusetts   signed 


'  Letter  of  James  G.  Barnwell  to  Samuel  S.  Green. 
•-'  Fai^e,  p.  183.        :;  Ibid.,  pp.  183,  184. 


iin  act  which  completed  the  legislation  sought  by  Mr. 
Craisrie  and  his  associates  in  enabling  them  to  build  Canal 
(or  Craigie)  Bridge  from  Lechmere  Point  to  Boston.1 

"As  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained  from  the  records,  Mr. 
Craigie  paid  less  than  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  the  whole 
estate.  Reserving  sufficient  land  and  flats  for  the  construction 
of  the  bridge  and  the  location  of  a  toll-house,  he  put  the  remain- 
der on  the  market  at  the  price  of  three  hundred  and  sixty 
thousand  dollars.  *  *  *  The  bridge  was  completed  in  ISO!) 
and  roads  were  opened  to  Cambridge  Common,  to  Medford  and 
elsewhere,  to  attract  travel  from  the  country  to  Boston  over  this 
avenue."2 

Mr.  Craigie  and  his  associates  were  incorporated  March 
3,  1810,  by  the  General  Court,  as  the  Lechmere  Point 
Corporation.3  This  corporation  laid  out  streets  and  lots. 
But  the  records  show  that  the  sales  of  lands  were  few. 
"  The  first  deed  of  a  house  lot  entered  on  record  is  dated 
Aug..  20,  1810,  and  conveys  to  Samuel  S.  Green  the  lot  on 
the  northwesterly  corner  of  Cambridge  and  Second  streets, 
where  he  resided  more  than  three-score  }rears  and  where  he 
died  Sept.  8,  1872." 4  "The  records  exhibit  only  ten  deeds 
of  lots  given  by  the  corporation  until  Sept.  20,  1813,  when 
a  sale  of  land  was  made  which,  March  16,  1814,  came 
into  possession  of  the  'Boston  Porcelain  and  Glass  Com- 
pany.' "5 

"But  the  '  crowning  mercy'  to  the  whole  enterprise  was  the 
agreement  approved  by  the  corporation  Nov.  1,  1813,  and  by 
the  Court  of  Sessions  at  the  next  December  Term,"  to  give  land 
to  the  County  of  Middlesex  and  build  a  "Court  House  and  jail 
satisfactory  to  the  Court,  at  an  expense  to  the  Corporation  not 
exceeding  twenty-four  thousand  dollars,  on  condition  that  as 
soon  as  the  edifices  were  completed  they  should  be  used  for  the 
purposes  designed."6  That  agreement  was  carried  out  and  the 
public  buildings  mentioned  still  occupy  the  same  grounds. 
From  this  time  the  success  of  the  Craigie  land  speculation  un- 
assured. 

"  Not  only  the  River  Street  and  Western  Avenue  bridges," 
writes  Dr.  Paige,  "but  most  of  the  thoroughfares  through  the 
city"  of  Cambridge  "  which  were  opened  during  many  years,  were 
constructed  for  the  benefit  of  West  Boston  or  Canal  bridge."  7 


Paige,  p.  186.     *  Ibid.     *  Ibid.     *  Ibid.,  p.  187.     B  Ibid.,  p.  208.     6lbid.     'Ibid. 
3 


34 

"  When  Andrew  Craigie  had  completed  his  purchase  of  the 
Lechmere  or  Phips'  estate,  and  was  ready  to  bring  it  into  the 
market  by  building  Canal  bridge  *  *  *  a  sharp  rivalry 
between  him  and  his  associates  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  pro- 
prietors of  West  Boston  Bridge  and  the  Cambridge-port  residents 
and  landowners  on  the  other,  for  several  years  kept  the  town  in 
constant  excitement  and  turmoil.  *  *  *  The  severest  con- 
test between  the  two  parties  was  in  regard  to  Mount  Auburn 
Street  and  Cambridge  Street."  ] 

Canal  bridge  was  opened  to  the  public  on  Commence- 
ment Day,  August  30,  1809.2  The  Commencement  fes- 
tivities at  the  Craigie  Mansion  must  have  been  unusually 
brilliant  and  the  guests  jubilant  on  that  occasion. 

Mr.  Craigie  was  a  warden  at  Christ  Church,  Cambridge, 
in  1796. 3 

But  after  a  time  Andrew  Craigie's  glory  waned  and  he 
had  to  live  as  well  as  he  could  in  reduced  circumstances. 
As  George  William  Curtis  puts  it,  his  " '  spacious  times ' 
came  to  an  end.  A  visitor  walked  with  him  through  his 
large  and  handsome  rooms  and,  struck  with  admiration, 
exclaimed,  f  Mr.   Craigie,  I  should    think    you  could  lose 

yourself    in    all  this   spaciousness.'     'Mr.  '(tradition 

has  forgotten  the  name),  said  the  hospitable  and  ruined 
host,  f  I  have  lost  myself  in  it,'  and  we  do  not  find  him 
again."  4 

"At  the   headquarters   of   Washington    once,"    writes   James 

Russell  Lowell,  in  1855,  "and  now  of  the  muses,   lived  C , 

but  before  the  date  of  these  recollections" — about  1825 — "here 
for  seven  years  (as  the  law  was  then)  he  made  his  house  his 
castle,  sunning  himself  in  his  elbow-chair,  at  the  front  door,  on 
the  seventh  day,  secure  from  every  arrest  but  death's."5 

"Mr.  Craigie,"  says  Samuel  Longfellow,  "having,  as  he  said, 
'  lost  himself '  in  his  house,  its  grounds,  greenhouses,  equipages 
and  hospitalities  (not  to  mention  outside  speculations,  such  as 
the  bridge  which  still  bears  his  name) — departed  this  world, 
leaving  to  his  widow  a  life  interest  in  the  estate."  6 


1  Paige,  p.  20.3. 

2  Winsor's  Memorial  Hist.,  v.  4,  p.  27. 

3  Paige,  p.  310. 

4  Curtis,  in  Homes,  pp.  277,  278. 

5  Lowell,  ]>.  72. 

6  Life  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  p.  262. 


35 

Mr.  Craigie  died  September  L9,  1819,  writes  Dr. 
Paige;1  in  1.X21  says  Mrs.  Isabella  James.2 

He  was  not  the  only  one  of  the  persons  in  whom  we 
have  become  interested  in  this  paper  who  became  pecuni- 
arily embarrassed.  The  lavish  Mr.  Tracy,  who  bought 
the  Vassall  House  when  sold  under  the  act  of  confiscation, 
tradition  states,  lost  most  of  his  property. 

Bossenger  Foster  writes  in  August,  1798,  from  Cam- 
bridge : — 

"  My  Dr  Bro1'  *  *  *  I  have  given  security  to  the  bank 
and  that  Debt  is  to  lye  for  12  ra"  Shall  be  able,  I  hope,  to  do 
the  same  with  the  Union  bank,  but  what  shall  I  do  for  present 
money ;  have  not  wherewith  to  send  a  man  &  horse  any  way — 
the  Sheriff  is  in  possession  of  the  furniture,  &c. ;  believe  all  will 
do  well  at  last." 

Mch.   23/99,   Tho.    Mullett    c£    Co.,    London,    write  to 

Andrew  Craigie  : — 

"We  were  favor11  with  yours  of  12th  Oct.  the  last  day  of 
November,  and  were  extremely  Concerned  at  your  Confirmation 
of  the  reports  we  had  heard  relative  to  our  friends  at  New  York. 
Yours  was  the  first  positive  information  we  had  receivd  "  regard- 
ing, apparently,  the  embarrassment  of  the  Messrs.  Johnson. 

Before  we  leave  Mr.  Craigie,  a  romantic  incident 
connected  with  his  life  must  he  described.  It  will  he 
remembered  that  Saxe  Holm  3  wrote  an  interesting  little 
story  entitled  "  Esther  Wynn's  Love  Letters,"  that  "  Uncle 
Jo  found  these  letters  on  the  cellar  stairs  "  and  that  "  mys- 
terious terrors  gathered  round  them  until  it  was  discovered 
that  they  slipped  through  a  crack  in  the  upper  stairs  where 
they  had  been  nailed"  up  "for  safe-keeping.  This  is  a  true 
anecdote."4  The  letters  were  discovered  by  Henry  W. 
Longfellow  after  he  came   to    live    in    the   Craigie  House. 


1  Paige,  p.  183.    Note. 

2  I.  James,  p.  101. 

:;  In  John  Foster  Kirk's  "  Supplement  to  Allibone's  Dictionary,"  vol.  II., 
Pliila.,  1891,  the  following  statement  is  made  under  the  name  of  Mrs.  Helen  Maria 
Fiske  Jackson  (H.  H.):  "The  stories  published  under  the  pseudonvine  of  'Saxe 
Holm'  in  '  Seribner's  Monthly,' and  afterwards  in  book  form,  were  attributed  to 
her  pen,  but  their  authorship  was  never  acknowledged." 

*  K.  H.  Stoddard  and  i  there,     poets'  Homes,  pp.  13,  14, 


36 

They  were  written  to  Mr.  Craigie  and  "  placed  by  him  in 
their  hiding-place,"  for  what  reason  no  one  knows.  "They 
were  not  such  love  letters  as  Esther  Wynn's."  It  is  said 
that  Mr.  Longfellow  had  intended  making  them  the  subject 
of  a  poem  before  he  was  frustrated  by  Saxe  Holm  in  her 
story.1 

Samuel  Longfellow,  in  his  biography  of  his  brother, 
makes  the  following  remarks  : — 

"  Whether  or  not"  Mrs.  Craigie,  who  occupied  the  house  a 
number  of  years  after  her  husband's  death,  "knew  of  the  letters 
hidden  away  in  the  back  staircase,  which  many  years  afterwards 
came  mysteriously  dropping  one  hy  one  upon  the  cellar  stairs 
below,  history  does  not  record.  These  proved  to  be  letters — not 
of  love,  but  of  duty — from  a  young  girl,  a  ward  of  Mr.  Craigie, 
absent  at  school.  Why  one  of  the  stairs  should  have  been  made 
into  a  box  for  holding  them,  it  is  not  easy  to  see;  probably  it 
was  originally  constructed  for  some  other  purpose."9 

Mrs.  Craigie,  as  just  intimated,  long'  outlived  her  hus- 
band. 

"  Left  alone  in  the  large  house,  with  a  very  small  income,"  she 
"  reserved  certain  rooms  for  herself  and  let  the  others  to  various 
occupants."  3 

The  distinguished  statesman  and  scholar,  Edward 
Everett,  was  one  of  her  lodgers.  He  married  in  1822  ; 
and  soon  after,  while  serving  as  a  professor  in  Harvard 
College,  carried  his  bride  to  Mrs.  Craigie's  mansion  to  live. 
We  remember  Mr.  Everett  with  especial  regard  in  this 
society,  for  he  was  our  third  president  and  held  the  posi- 
tion for  twelve  years — from  1841  to  1853. 

President  Jared  Sparks  also  earned  his  bride  to  Craigie 
House.  "On  the  Kith  of  October,  l<x;>2,"  he  "married  Miss 
Fiances  Anne,  daughter  of  William  Allen,  Esq.,  of  Hyde 
Park,  X.  Y.,"4  and  the  following  spring  took  up  his 
abode  with  Mrs.  Craigie. 

Following  is  an  extract  from  his  journal  : — 

"  This  day  began  to  occupy  Mrs.  Craigie's  house  in  Cambridge. 

1  R.  H.  Stoddard  and  others.    Poets'  Homes,  pp.  1.'!.  14. 

2  s.  Longfellow's  Lite  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  l..  p.  215.        '■■  Ibid.,  pp.  2G2,  263. 
*  Geo.  K.  Ellis.    Memoir  of  .lured  Sparks,  p.  50. 


37 

It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that,  while  I  am  engaged  in  prepar- 
ing for  the  press  the  letters  of  General  Washington  which  he  wrote 
at  Cambridge  after  taking  command  of  the  American  army,  I 
should  occupy  the  rooms  that  he  did  at  that  time."  ' 

Mr.  Sparks  was  for  nearly  twenty  years  the  Secretary 
tor  Foreign  Correspondence  of  this  Society,  and  was  loved 
and  revered  by  the  members  who  were  his  contemporaries. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Sparks,  came  Henry  W.  Longfellow. 
lie  shall  talk  to  us  about  Mrs.  Craigie  : — 

"'The  first  time  that  I  was  in  the  Craigie  House,"  he  writes, 
'•  was  on  a  beautiful  summer  afternoon  in  the  year  1837.  I 
came  to  see  Mr.  McLane,  a  law  student,  who  occupied  the  south 
eastern  chamber."  *  *  *  He  "  left  Cambridge  in  August,  and 
I  took  possession  of  his  room,  making  use  of  it  as  a  library  or 
study,  and  having  the  adjoining  chamber  for  my  bedroom.  At 
first  Mrs.  Craigie  declined  to  let  me  have  rooms.  I  remember 
how  she  looked  as  she  stood,  in  her  white  turban,  with  her  hands 
crossed  behind  her,  snapping  her  grey  eyes.  She  had  resolved, 
she  said,  to  take  no  more  students  into  the  house.  But  her 
manner  changed  when  1  told  her  who  I  was.  She  said  that  she 
had  read  '  Ontre-Mer,'  one  number  of  which  was  lying  on  her 
sideboard.  She  then  took  me  all  over  the  house  and  showed  me 
every  room  in  it,  saying  as  we  went  into  each,  that  I  could  not 
have  that  one.  She  finally  consented  to  my  taking  the  rooms 
mentioned  above,  on  condition  that  the  door  leading  into  the  back 
entry  should  be  locked  on  the  outside."2  As  cold  weather  came 
on  kk  I  remained  alone  with  the  widow  in  her  castle.  The  back  part 
of  the  house  was  occupied,  however,  by  her  farmer.  *  *  * 
The  winter  was  a  rather  solitary  one  and  the  house  very  still.  I 
used  to  hear  Mrs.  Craigie  go  down  to  breakfast  at  nine  or  ten  in 
the  morning  and  go  up  to  bed  at  eleven  at  night.  During  the 
day  she  seldom  left  her  parlor,  where  she  sat  reading  the  news- 
papers and  the  magazines — occasionally  a  volume  of  Voltaire. 
She  read  also  the  English  Annuals,  of  which  she  had  a  large 
collection.  Occasionally,  the  sound  of  voices  announced  :i 
visitor;  and  she  sometimes  enlivened  the  long  evenings  with  a 
half-forgotten  tune  upon  an  old  piano-forte.  During  the  follow- 
ing summer  the  line  old  elms  in  front  of  the  house  were  attacked 
by  canker-worms,  which,  after  having  devoured  the  leaves,  came 
spinning  down  in  myriads.  Mrs.  Craigie  used  to  sit  by  the  open 
windows  and  let  them  crawl  over  her  white  turban  unmolested. 
She  would  have  nothing  done  to  protect  the  trees  from  these 
worms ;  she  used  to  say,  l  Why,  sir,  they  are  our  fellow-worms  ; 
they  have  as  good  a  right  to  live  as  we  have.' " 

'  Geo.  E.  Ellis.    Memoir  of  Jared  Sparks,  i>.  51. 
2  S.  Longfellow's  Life  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  pp.  '203- '.'05. 
*3 


38 

"Mrs.  Craigie  was  eccentric  to  the  last.  In  matters  of  relig- 
ion she  was  a  '  free-thinker.'  She  used  to  say  that  she  saw  God 
in  nature,  and  wanted  no  Mediator  to  come  between  Him  and  her. 
She  had  a  passion  for  flowers  and  for  cats,  and  in  general  for  all 
living  creatures.  *  *  *  She  had  a  great  hatred  for  the  Jews  ; 
and  when  Miss  Lowell  said  to  her,  'Why,  Mrs.  Craigie,  our 
Saviour  was  a  Jew  ! '  she  answered,   '  I  can't  help  it,  ma'am.' "  ] 

In  reading  this  account  of  Mrs.  Craigie,  one  cannot 
help  thinking  how  ordinary  were  the  views  of  canker- 
worms  held  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  compared  with 
those  of  this  sympathetic  woman.  Says  Dr.  Holmes,  in 
an  account  of  the  Gambrel-roofed  House  in  which  he  was 
born  : — 

"  The  soil  of  the  university  town  is  divided  into  patches  of 
sandy  and  of  clayey  ground.  The  Common  and  the  College 
green,  near  which  the  old  house  stands,  are  on  one  of  the  sandy 
patches.  Four  curses  are  the  local  inheritance:  droughts,  dust, 
mud,  and  canker-worms.  I  cannot  but  think  that  all  the  charac-. 
ters  of  a  region  help  to  modify  the  children  born  in  it.  I  am 
fond  of  making  apologies  for  human  nature,  and  I  think  I  could 
find  an  excuse  for  myself  if  I,  too,  were  dry  and  barren,  and 
muddy-witted  and  '  cantankerous,' — disposed  to  get  my  back  up, 
like  those  other  natives  of  the  soil."2 

Lowell  remembers  Mrs.  Craigie  : — 

the  " turbaned  widow,  studious  only  of  Spinoza,  and  refusing  to 
molest  the  canker-worms  that  annually  disleaved  her  elms, 
because  we  were  all  vermicular  alike.  She  had  been  a  famous 
beauty  once,  but  the  canker  years  had  left  her  leafless,  too,  and 
I  used  to  wonder,  as  I  saw  her  sitting  always  alone  at  her  accus- 
tomed window,  whether  she  were  ever  visited  by  the  reproachful 
shade  of  him  who  (in  spite  of  Rosalind)  died  broken-hearted  for 
her  in  her  radiant  youth."3 

Reverend  Samuel  Longfellow  knew7  Mrs.  Craigie  : — 

He  "  remembers  very  well  visiting  "  her  "  in  his  early  college 
days,  to  beg  some  autograph  letters  of  Revolutionary  personages, 
of  which  she  had  a  store.  She  sat  in  her  southeastern  4  parlor, 
in  white  muslin  turban  and  gray  silk  gown,  with  the  sun  shining 
among  her  window-plants  and  singing-birds ;  and  as  often  as  he 
took  his  leave  she  said,    'Be  good;     I   want   you  to  be  good.' 


'  S.  Longfellow's  Life  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  pp.  263-265. 

J  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast-table,  pp.  23,  24. 

;i  Firesule  Travels,  p.  73. 

*  A  mistake  for  "  southwestern,"  is  it  not? 


39 

There  was  an  awful  whisper  in  Cambridge  circles  that  she  read 
Voltaire  in  the  original.  At  any  rate,  her  copy  of  his  works 
remained  in  the  library  of  Craigie  House."  ' 

I  fear  that  these  dreadful  suspicions  were   well  founded. 

I  find  in  the  Craigie  manuscripts,  Nalbro'  and  Jno. 
Frazier  writing  to  Mr.  Craigie  July  21/94,  when  speaking 
of  a  third  party, 

"that  he  had  not  received  the  remaining  numbers  of  the 
Encyclopaedia  in  French.  We  pray  you  to  make  our  respectful 
compliments  to  Mrs.  Craigie     *     *     *     ." 

Mr.  Henry  W.  Longfellow  speaks  of  Mrs.  Craigie's  "  old 
piano-forte." 

In  the  manuscripts,  August  4/tll,  John  Coles,  London, 
writes  to  Andrew  Craigie,  New  York  : — 

tt  *  *  *  w\\\  with  much  pleasure  attend  to  your  request 
respecting  the  purchase  of  the  most  approved  musical  instru- 
ment." 

Here  is  an  agreement,  dated  at  Cambridge,  Dee.  6/92  : 

"The  Subscriber  contracts  to  give  Eight  Lessons  on  the 
piano-forte  to  the  Ladies  in  Mr.  Craigie's  family — two  Lessons 
each  week — for  which  Lessons  is  to  be  paid  three  pounds  twelve 
shillings  *  *  *  — the  half  of  which  £o.  12  has  been  paid 
this  day  to  Hans  Gram." 

A  day  or  two  before  her  death,  Mrs.  Craigie  said  to 
Mr.  H.  W.  Longfellow  :— 

"  You'll  never  be  married  again;  because  you  see  how  ugly 
an  old  woman  looks  in  bed.'"2 

This  pathetic  little  scene  has  great  dramatic  possibilities 
in  it.  See  what  a  little  rhetoric  will  do  for  it.  Mr. 
George  William  Curtis  thus  described  it  nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  in  his  days  of  comparative  exuberance.  Speaking  of 
Mr.  Longfellow,  he  says  : — 

"as  he  entered  her  room,  and  advancing  to  her  bedside,  saw  her 
lying  stretched  at  length  and  clutching  the  clothes  closely  around 
her  neck,  so  that  only  her  sharply-featured  and  shrunken  face 
was  visible — the  fading  eye  opened  upon  him  for  a  moment  and 


1  S.  Longfellow's  Life  of  H.  W.  Longfellow,  v.  1,  p.  '263. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  265. 


40 

he  heard  from  the  withered  lips  this  stern   whisper  of   farewell — 
'  Young  man,  never  marry,  for  beauty  comes  to  this.'  "  ' 

The  eminent  lexicographer,  Joseph  Emerson  Worcester, 
was  one  of  the  well-known  personages  who  occupied  rooms 
in  Mrs.  Craigie's  house.  Just  before  her  death  he  bought 
the  property. 

The  poet  Longfellow,  as  has  appeared  in  a  statement 
by  himself,  quoted  a  few  pages  back,  first  went  to  live  in 
Craigie  House  in  the  summer  of  1837,  sixty-three  years 
ago.  He  afterwards  "  shared  the  house  with  Dr.  Worces- 
ter, and,  finally,  in  1843  became  the  owner  of  the  mansion 
and  the  adjacent  land.''2 

"  The  one  hundred  and  lifty  or  two  hundred  acres  of  Andrew 
Craigie  had  shrunken  to  eight.  But  the  meadow  land  in  front, 
sloping  to  the  river,  was  secured  by  the  Poet,  who  thereby 
secured  also  the  wide  and  winning  prospect,  the  broad  green 
reaches  and  the  gentle  Milton  Hills."  3 

Several  of  the  beautiful  elm  trees  which  stood  in  front 
of  the  house  when  Longfellow  first  went  there  to  live  have 
disappeared. 

As  our  associate,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  has 
stated,  Longfellow  wrote  in  1839  of  "ten  magnificent 
elms.**4  But,  as  Mr.  Higginson  also  tells  us:  the  Poet 
"greatly  improved  the  appearance  of  the  grounds  by  the 
low-fenced  terrace."  5 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  speak  of  the  Craigie 
House  during  its  occupancy  by  Mr.  Longfellow,  or  as  the 
present  home  of  a  member  of  his  family.  Enough  to  say 
that  it  has  continually  grown  more  famous  since  the  emi- 
nent and  kind-hearted  poet  took  up  his  residence  in  it,  and 
is  still  an  object  of  interest  to  an  army  of  visitors,  largely 
because  it  was  his  dwelling-place. 

In  conclusion,  let  Mr.  Higginson  discourse  to  us  about 
this  matter  : — 

"  Craigie  House,"  he  says,  "  has  played  a  much  larger  part  in 

1  Curtis,  in  Homes,  p.  272. 

-  Harvard  Book,  v.  2,  p.  431. 

:i  Curtis,  in  Homes,  p.  283. 

4  "  Old  Cambridge,"  p.  125.  s  Ibid. 


41 

Cambridge  tradition  than  the  houses  which  were  also  the  birth- 
places of  Holmes  and  Lowell.  Those  who  have  spent  summers 
in  Cambridge  during  the  last  ten  years  must  know  well — such  is 
certainly  my  own  experience — that  twice  as  many  strangers 
inquired  the  way  to  Craigie  House  as  to  Elm  wood  and  the  'Gram- 
brel-roofed  House'  put  together;  and  though  this  might  be  partly 
due  to  associations  with  Washington,  yet  I  am  confident  that 
these  made  but  a  small  portion  of  the  whole  interest  in  the  abode. 
1  have  seldom  felt  so  keenly  the  real  worth  of  popular  fame  as 
when,  one  summer  day,  in  passing  Craigie  House,  I  found  a 
young  man,  of  somewhat  rustic  appearance  and  sunburned  look, 
eagerly  questioning  two  other  youths  as  to  the  whereabouts  of 
the  '  Spreading  Chestnut  Tree '  mentioned  in  '  The  Village  Black- 
smith.' Coming  to  their  relief  I  explained  to  him  that  the  tree 
in  question  was  never  at  that  point  and  had  now  vanished 
altogether,  but  offered  to  show  him  where  it  once  was,  and  where 
the  blacksmith  shop  of  Dexter  Pratt  had  stood.  Walking  down 
the  street  with  him,  I  won  his  confidence  by  telling  him  that  1  was 
one  of  the  Cambridge-bred  boys  who  had  '  looked  in  at  the  open 
door';  that  the  blacksmith's  wife,  Rowena  Pratt,  had  been  my 
nurse,  and  that  I  had,  in  later  life,  heard  her  daughter  sing.  He 
told  me,  in  return,  that  he  was  a  young  Irishman,  arrived  in  the 
country  but  the  day  before,  that  the  first  poetry  he  had  ever  quite 
learned  by  heart  at  school  was  '  The  Village  Blacksmith  ' ;  and 
that  he  had  resolved  that  his  first  act  on  reaching  Boston  should 
be  to  visit  the  Chestnut  Tree.  'This,'  I  said  to  myself,  'is 
fame.' "  l 


Following  is  a  list  of  the  principal  books  which,  in 
addition  to  the  Craigie  manuscripts,  have  been  used  in 
preparing  this  paper  : — 

Allibone's  Dictionary,  Supplement,  Phila.,  1891,  by  John  Foster  Kirk, 
2  v.,  for  article  'Jackson,  Mrs.  Helen  Maria  Fiske  (H.  H.)" 

Amory,  Thomas  C.  Old  Cambridge  and  New,  Boston,  1871  (reprinted 
from  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  for  .Inly, 
1871.     With  additions.) 

Appletons'  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography,  vol.  II.,  New  York, 
1887,  article  on  Edward  Everett  by  S.  Austin  Allibone.  Also  article 
on  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  by  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 

Chastellux,  Marquis  De.     Travels  in  North  America,  London,  1787. 

Curtis,  George  William.  Paper  on  "Henry  W.  Longfellow"  in  Homes 
of  American  Authors,  New  York,  1857  (copyright  1852). 

Drake,  Samuel  A.  Historic  Mansions  and  Highways  Around  Boston, 
being  a  new  and  revised  edition  of  "Old  Landmarks  and  Historic 
Fields  of  Middlesex."     Boston,  1899. 


"  Old  Cambridge,"  pp.  125-127. 


42 

Directories  of  New  York,  1792-1798. 

Directory  of  Philadelphia  for  1793. 

Eliot,  Samuel  A.  A  sketch  of  the  history  of  Harvard  College  and  its 
present  state.     Boston,  1848. 

Ellis,  George  E.  Memoir  of  Jared  Sparks,  Cambridge,  1869  (reprinted 
from  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  May, 
1868). 

Foote,  Henry  Wilder.  Annals  of  King's  Chapel,  Boston.  Little,  Brown 
&  Co.,  vol.  I.,  1882;  vol.  II.,  1890.  (See  index  for  "  Vassall, 
John.")  i 

Green,  Samuel  Abbott.  Groton  Historical  Series,  4v.,  Groton,  1887- 
1899. 

Harvard  Book.     See  Vaille  and  Clark. 

Iligginson,  Thomas  W.     Old  Cambridge,  New  York,  1899. 

Holm,  Saxe.  Esther  Wynn's  Love-letters,  in  Scribner's  Monthly,  De- 
cember, 1871,  pp.  164-176.  Reprinted  in  Saxe  Holm's  Stories,  New 
York,  1874. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell.     The    Poet  at  the   Breakfast-table.     Boston 

1883. 

James,  Isabella.  The  Cambridge  of  1776.  Cambridge,  1876.  Paper, 
"  The  Batchelder  house  and  its  owners." 

Longfellow,  Alice  M.  "  Longfellow  in  home  life";  paper  in  the  Cam- 
bridge Magazine,  March,  1896.  Report  of  a  paper  on  "  The  Craigie 
House"  in  the  Cambridge  Tribune,  Saturday,  April  21,  1900,  p.  4. 
This  paper  was  read  to  the  Cantabrigia  Club,  April  20.  Perhaps  it 
is  the  same  paper  which  Miss  Longfellow  read  to  the  ladies  who 
attended  the  meetings  of  the  American  Historical  Association  held 
in  Boston  a  few  months  before. 

Longfellow,  Samuel,  Editor.  Life  of  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow, 
2  v.,  Boston,  1886.  Final  Memorials  of  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfel- 
low, Boston,  1887. 

Lowell,  James  Russell.  Fireside  travels,  eighth  edition,  Boston,  1883 
(copyright  1864);  paper,  "  Cambridge  thirty  years  ago."  This  paper 
was  originally  published  in  Putnam's  Monthly  Magazine,  vol.  III.,  pp. 
379  and  473. 

Paige,   Lucius   R.      History   of    Cambridge,    Massachusetts.     Boston : 

1877. 

Paine,  Nathaniel.  "  Sketch  of  Samuel  Foster  Haven  "  in  Reminiscences 
and  biographical  notices  of  twenty-one  members  of  the  Worcester 
Fire  Society,  Worcester,  1899. 

Quincy,  Josiah.     Figures  of  the  past.     Boston,  1883. 

Smith,  Mrs.  E.  Vale.     History  of  Newburyport.     Newburyport,  1854. 

Stoddard,  R.  II.,  and  others.  Poets'  homes.  Boston  (copyright  1877)  : 
Paper  "  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow."  This  paper,  in  skeleton, 
appeared  in  one  of  the  earliest  numbers  of  Wide  Awake,  where  it 
was  attributed  to  Hezekiah  Butterworth. 

Rigg,  J.  M.  Article,  "Kent  and  Stratham,  Edward  Augustus,  Duke 
of,"  in  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  v.  31,  Loudon,  1892. 


13 

Thomas,  Joseph.  Universal  pronouncing  dictionary  of  biography  and 
mythology,  Phila.,  1886:  Article,  "Talleyrand." 

Vaille,  F  O.  and  Clark,  II.  A.,  Collectors  and  Publishers.  The  Harvard 
book,  2  v.,  Cambridge,  1875 :  Paper,  "  The  Craigie  House,"  by  George 
Dexter,  and  other  papers. 

Winsor,  Justin,  Editor.  Memorial  history  of  Boston,  4  v.,  Boston, 
1880-1  :  Paper  by  Marshall  Piuckney  Wilder  on  "The  horticulture  of 
Boston  and  vicinity,"  and  other  papers. 


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